A PHP internals mailing list thread discussing the proposed Primary Constructors RFC, which introduces a new syntax for declaring class constructors at the top of the class definition. The main debate centers on whether primary constructors should support a body (for initialization/validation logic) or remain body-less as proposed. RFC author Rob Landers argues that body-less primary constructors still cover 60-70% of real-world use cases (based on analysis of Laravel/Symfony codebases) and that constructor bodies deserve a separate follow-up RFC due to complexity. Critic Nick Sdot argues that without body support, the feature is too limited, particularly for readonly classes where property hooks don't work, and raises broader concerns about PHP accumulating half-finished features that never get completed. Rowan Tommins takes the opposite view from Nick, preferring limited shorthands over full-featured alternatives that would cause style debates.
