Drop annotation key/value pair syntax

[thekid]

Scope of Change

This RFC suggests dropping annotation key/value pair syntax.

Rationale

Key/value pair syntax is redundant to simply using maps inside annotation values, not much shorter and requires extra effort in parsing.

#[@expect(class= FormatException::class)]

...is the same as:

#[@expect(['class' => FormatException::class])]

...which also already works today!

Functionality

• XP 10: Deprecation including notice
• XP 11: Removal, raises parse errors

Security considerations

n/a

Speed impact

Eventually faster once extra parser handling can be removed

Dependencies

Extra handling in https://github.com/xp-framework/compiler

Related documents

https://wiki.php.net/rfc/annotations_v2 - uses map syntax

[thekid]

Finding occurrences of key/value pair syntax via grep:

$ grep -HErn '@[a-z]+\([a-zA-Z ]+=' src/

[thekid]

This affects quite a bit of code:

Timm@slate ~/devel/xp
$ grep -HErn '@[a-z]+\([a-zA-Z ]+=' */src | cut -d / -f 1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn
     72 collections
     50 opensearch
     44 lang
     42 rest
     25 xml
     22 google-search
     20 rdbms
     19 mirrors
     15 inject
     15 command
     11 scriptlet
     11 match
     11 json-patch
      9 json
      7 hashing
      7 hash
      7 command-bc
      6 core
      4 yaml
      4 stomp
      4 remote
      4 handlebars
      3 markdown
      3 assert
      2 zip
      2 webservices
      2 web
      2 uri
      2 rest-api
      2 keepass
      2 imaging
      2 frontend
      1 webtest
      1 uses
      1 security
      1 rest-client
      1 mustache
      1 mocks
      1 logging
      1 io-collections
      1 doclet
      1 credentials
      1 compiler

[thekid]

The handling for key/value pair syntax which can be removed is the following:

XP Core

$ git diff
diff --git a/src/main/php/lang/reflect/ClassParser.class.php b/src/main/php/lang/reflect/ClassParser.class.php
index 90d90d9..d7b6f5a 100755
--- a/src/main/php/lang/reflect/ClassParser.class.php
+++ b/src/main/php/lang/reflect/ClassParser.class.php
@@ -339,27 +339,9 @@ class ClassParser {
         } else if (2 === $state) {              // Inside braces of @attr(...)
           if (')' === $tokens[$i]) {
             $state= 1;
-          } else if ($i + 2 < $s && ('=' === $tokens[$i + 1] || '=' === $tokens[$i + 2])) {
-            $key= $tokens[$i][1];
-            $value= [];
-            $state= 3;
-            trigger_error('Use of deprecated annotation key/value pair "'.$key.'" in '.$place, E_USER_DEPRECATED);
           } else {
             $value= $this->valueOf($tokens, $i, $context, $imports);
           }
-        } else if (3 === $state) {              // Parsing key inside @attr(a= b, c= d)
-          if (')' === $tokens[$i]) {
-            $state= 1;
-          } else if (',' === $tokens[$i]) {
-            $key= null;
-          } else if ('=' === $tokens[$i]) {
-            $state= 4;
-          } else if (is_array($tokens[$i])) {
-            $key= $tokens[$i][1];
-          }
-        } else if (4 === $state) {              // Parsing value inside @attr(a= b, c= d)
-          $value[$key]= $this->valueOf($tokens, $i, $context, $imports);
-          $state= 3;
         }
       }
     } catch (\lang\XPException $e) {

XP Compiler

diff --git a/src/main/php/lang/ast/syntax/PHP.class.php b/src/main/php/lang/ast/syntax/PHP.class.php
index 709d923..903dd58 100755
--- a/src/main/php/lang/ast/syntax/PHP.class.php
+++ b/src/main/php/lang/ast/syntax/PHP.class.php
@@ -1037,39 +1037,7 @@ class PHP extends Language {

       if ('(' === $parse->token->value) {
         $parse->expecting('(', $context);
-
-        if ('name' === $parse->token->kind) {
-          $token= $parse->token;
-          $parse->forward();
-          $pairs= '=' === $parse->token->value;
-
-          $parse->queue[]= $parse->token;
-          $parse->token= $token;
-
-          if ($pairs) {
-            $line= $parse->token->line;
-            $values= [];
-            do {
-              $key= $parse->token->value;
-              $parse->warn('Use of deprecated annotation key/value pair "'.$key.'"', $context);
-              $parse->forward();
-              $parse->expecting('=', $context);
-
-              $values[]= [new Literal("'".$key."'"), $this->expression($parse, 0)];
-
-              if (',' === $parse->token->value) {
-                $parse->forward();
-                continue;
-              }
-              break;
-            } while (null !== $parse->token->value);
-            $a[$name]= new ArrayLiteral($values, $line);
-          } else {
-            $a[$name]= $this->expression($parse, 0);
-          }
-        } else {
-          $a[$name]= $this->expression($parse, 0);
-        }
+        $a[$name]= $this->expression($parse, 0);
         $parse->expecting(')', $context);
       } else {
         $a[$name]= null;

[thekid]

✅ Step 1 - xp-framework/core#236 is merged