[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #25160: Unnecessarily passing $this by reference in core

[WordPress Trac]

#25160: Unnecessarily passing $this by reference in core
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 Reporter:  jdgrimes                             |       Owner:
     Type:  defect (bug)                         |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                               |   Milestone:  3.7
Component:  General                              |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                               |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch needs-testing needs-codex  |
  dev-feedback                                   |
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Changes (by jdgrimes):

 * keywords:  has-patch needs-testing needs-codex => has-patch needs-testing
     needs-codex dev-feedback


Comment:

 The second part of this patch covers `do_*_ref_array()` calls. The problem
 with my proposed patch for that is that functions hooking into these
 actions/filters may be explicitly expecting references to be passed to
 them, not values. There is even at least one instance of this in core
 itself. It would be no problem, except that this results in a PHP warning
 - which unlike notices won't be silenced automatically. So as much as I
 would like to see these converted to regular `do_action()` and
 `apply_filters()` because they are unnecessary and confusing, we probably
 can't just rip them out. We'd have to deprecate something.

 Ideally, we would catch the errors and then give a deprecated notice when
 `WP_DEBUG` is on. Not deprecating the hooks themselves, just the passing
 of the argument(s) by reference.

 Is that worth it? Any thoughts?

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/25160#comment:17>
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