[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #36335: Next generation: core autoloader proposal

[WordPress Trac]

#36335: Next generation: core autoloader proposal
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 Reporter:  dnaber-de        |       Owner:
     Type:  feature request  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |   Milestone:  4.7
Component:  General          |     Version:
 Severity:  normal           |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch        |     Focuses:
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Comment (by Clorith):

 Replying to [comment:112 schlessera]:
 > > Another thing that needs clarification: if we have autoloading, would
 a plugin be able to stop some of the core classes from loading, noop or
 replace them etc. That would be a backwards compatibility disaster down
 the road :)
 >
 > Yes, a plugin could potentially do this if it would `require` a class
 with the same name before it was loaded through the autoloader. However, I
 can't see why a plugin would want to do that, and it would probably break
 half of the time, because autoloading means there's no set point in time
 where you know the class was or wasn't loaded any more. Also, I think
 there's a number of classes and functions that contain a `class_exists()`
 check before being loaded, so these could just as easily be replaced by a
 plugin version.

 This is the part that worries me, you say they shouldn't, I agree. But
 from experience, they will, they most definitely will.

 I can guarantee that this will lead to an increase in broken setups,
 plugins and themes will re-declare classes, they won't use `class_exists`
 (because why should they, core will only make this a problem if core is
 loaded before them, there's not much consideration for other plugins and
 themes in that regard), they will have class name collisions with other
 plugins that are trying to be just as clever.

 Just look at 4.6 which had this with a single generically named function
 for `the_post_thumbnail_caption` which themes and plugins were already
 using, already declared function and classes means server error, this
 can't be fixed without accessing the file system in some way, which is a
 technical step many of our users are not comfortable making (and we
 shouldn't force upon them if we can avoid it).

 I was thinking of ways we could possibly sign core classes so we don't
 auto load plugin/theme ones as replacements, but that won't work if they
 just do an include or require right off the bat, which is the more likely
 scenario than them piggybacking off a core auto loader.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/36335#comment:113>
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