[wp-hackers] Adding wp-includes/class folder

[Peter Westwood]

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Jacob Santos wrote:
> What debate could there be for adding a class folder to wp-includes? I
> know the current standard is to have 'class-whatever.php' file to
> wp-includes folder. This would allow for better convention and
> organization moving forward. I mean this for external developers.
> 

I had been thinking just this over the past few days too!
And I think it is a natural progression of the reorganisation of files
that has happened in the past.

It is a 2.4 item, and we will probably need to keep back-compat
class-x.php files in wp-includes for at least one version as we may
break some plugins.

> One disadvantage is that developers would have to browse through
> multiple directories to find the current file. This setup is confusing
> to beginners and well everyone that isn't intimate to the code. Another
> disadvantage that using the PEAR convention you lose *perceived*
> *initial* Opcode Caching speed boost.
> 
> The advantages are
> 
> 1. Easier to unit test, can remove classes from presentation files.
> 2. Also keep the class model separate from application logic.
> 3. Using the PEAR convention, you would be able to use __autoload() on
> PHP 5.

Ug. As a an OO developer usage of __autoload says lazy developer and
harder to debug code - I much prefer the explicit list on includes than
some magic. And the magic won't work on PHP4 which we support.

> 4. Easier to extend later (once the convention is established, any new
> classes can be applied).
> 5. Simplifies more root WordPress files.
> 
> I suggest keeping the functions where they are and just separating the
> classes into their own file, so you would have 1 class per file, instead
> of cramming as many classes as there in that feature in a single file.
> Using Dashes to represent folder paths, so wp_xmlrpc_server would be
> /wp-includes/class/wp/xmlrpc/server.php. Would also suggestion using
> Pascal naming convention for class names: WP_Xmlrpc_Server or ABSPATH .
> WPINC . '/class/WP/Xmlrpc/Server.php'.

I'm not sure a strict one class per file is needed.  For example I think
it is worth keeping all the Walker classes together.  But some others
should be split out into seperate files.

westi
- --
Peter Westwood
http://blog.ftwr.co.uk
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