General syntax question

[KevinM1]

I asked this in the miscellaneous category a while back and never got a response, so I figured I'd ask here as it seems like a better section in which to post this.

I have the Larry Ullman/Peachpit book (the one up to PHP4 and MySQL4).  I saw someone make a comment that the book uses the 'old' PHP syntax.  What is an example of the 'old' synatx, and what is an example of the 'new' syntax?

Thanks :)

[wildteen88]

I guess what they mean by "old syntax" is the use of register_globals.

For example if your PHP setup has register_globals enabled, instead of using $_GET['url_var_here'] you used $url_var_here

The "new syntax" is to disable register_gloabls (which is off by default as of PHP4.2.x) and use the new superglobals which are $_GET, $_POST, $_SESSION, $_COOKIE etc

Another new sytax change is the old superglobals which are the $HTTP_*_VARS. For example instead of using $HTTP_GET_VARS you use $_GET instead for accessing vars in the URL. Or instead of $HTTP_POST_VARS your use $_POST etc.

[KevinM1]

[quote author=wildteen88 link=topic=111347.msg451290#msg451290 date=1160733889]
I guess what they mean by "old syntax" is the use of register_globals.

For example if your PHP setup has register_globals enabled, instead of using $_GET['url_var_here'] you used $url_var_here

The "new syntax" is to disable register_gloabls (which is off by default as of PHP4.2.x) and use the new superglobals which are $_GET, $_POST, $_SESSION, $_COOKIE etc

Another new sytax change is the old superglobals which are the $HTTP_*_VARS. For example instead of using $HTTP_GET_VARS you use $_GET instead for accessing vars in the URL. Or instead of $HTTP_POST_VARS your use $_POST etc.
[/quote]

I dunno if that's what the other person was talking about as my version of the book only uses the current superglobals.  I think it may have something to do with 'arrow' syntax ($something -> something) that I see in some people's code.  How does that kind of thing work?

[Jenk]

they may have been referring to short tag '<?'

Wihtout an example it's difficult to say :p

[KevinM1]

[quote author=Jenk link=topic=111347.msg451328#msg451328 date=1160741510]
they may have been referring to short tag '<?'

Wihtout an example it's difficult to say :p
[/quote]

Yeah, and of course the post I originally referred to didn't have any examples, only a passing mention of old vs. new syntax.

Oh well, so long as I can get my scripts to work, it doesn't really matter. :)

[akitchin]

the arrow syntax isn't technically old, that's just object-oriented syntax.  you refer to methods and variables that belong to objects using $object_name->method().

as for "old" syntax, there have been small changes between PHP versions (obviously).  the biggest is the superglobals by far, and if those are fine in your book, i can't see any reason to be concerned.  i myself haven't progressed to using PHP 5 yet, so i can't comment there, but apart from that it's probably just function parameter orders, etc.

[Jenk]

Perhaps they refer to use of classes with the following:

[code]<?php

class Foo

    var $bar;

    // constructor
    function Foo()
    {
        $this->bar = 'foobar';
    }
}

?>[/code]

as opposed to php5 syntax:
[code]<?php

class Foo
{
    private $bar;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->bar = 'foobar';
    }
}

?>[/code]