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I still don't get what stopped them from using any of the existing operators.

• teh_klev 11y ago
  Rationale was discussed on IRC, see: https://wiki.php.net/_media/rfc/php.ns.txt https://wiki.php.net/_media/rfc/php.ns.txt Linked to at the bottom of: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/namespaceseparator https://wiki.php.net/rfc/namespaceseparator
  • ufo 11y ago
    I skimmed through it but couldn't really understand why they couldn't coopt one of the existing operators (for example, by making classes have a namespace for their methods) Couldn't they provide a clearer explanation than simply dumping a huge IRC log like that??
    • wvenable 11y ago
      Basically namespaces operate at a different level. You can almost imagine it like Macro expansion -- the namespaces are fully resolved for all the symbols in the file and then the compilation happens. This is necessary for a host of reasons. They can't co-opt an existing operator because all the existing operators work at an entirely different level.