Classes in vBulletin

[S3rg1o]

Hey guys, I was just wondering if the only classes used in vBulletin where in the database script

is everything else functional? or based around functions I should say.

[Scott MacVicar]

correct.

PHP doesn't support OOP correctly at the moment, but support has been improved greatly in PHP 5 which uses the Zend Engine 2.

[S3rg1o]

correct.

PHP doesn't support OOP correctly at the moment, but support has been improved greatly in PHP 5 which uses the Zend Engine 2.

so will vBulletin use classes completely after that?

and when is PHP 5 being released

[Brian Briscoe]

correct.

PHP doesn't support OOP correctly at the moment, but support has been improved greatly in PHP 5 which uses the Zend Engine 2.

So is it your guys aim to use OOP? Or will you still use functions? If you guys intend to use OOP, will it most likely be in the next major re-write?

[fury]

What's not correct about the OOP support in php4?

[S3rg1o]

no deconstructers, no multiple inheritances etc ...

[JdS]

What's not correct about the OOP support in php4?

I was going to ask the same question... since most of my websites are written with the OOP style.

[Scott MacVicar]

no public / private definitions as well as everything S3rg1o mentioned

vB3 isn't even out the door yet so there no point in discussing vB4. Though i think OOP is overkill in most cases as you wont be creating multiple objects.

[JdS]

While I don't really care how vb is coded (as long as it does what it's supposed to do) it's not really wise to say oop is overkill.

e.g. I made a class to syntax highlight html code for another site I am working on and just added 2 lines to the code in (vb's) functions.php to have it work on my vb2 forum as well!

Now if that's not easy I don't know what is.

[Chen]

While I don't really care how vb is coded (as long as it does what it's supposed to do) it's not really wise to say oop is overkill.

e.g. I made a class to syntax highlight html code for another site I am working on and just added 2 lines to the code in (vb's) functions.php to have it work on my vb2 forum as well!

Now if that's not easy I don't know what is.

Would it not be possible with functions though?

OOP could be an overkill in some cases when it's used in places it shouldn't be used.

[JdS]

Using functions, sure it's possible. But I had a class that did that so it was as simple as 'plugging-it-in'!

When I understood very little about classes (and I am not claiming I know a lot here) I also thought that it was too much trouble. Now I am in love with the concept - it's not needed, yes but it ain't overkill either.

[Scott MacVicar]

its good if your going to re-use sections of the code or certain areas of the code would constantly be changing, such as a script having forum integration, this could be done via a class instead of functions.

But within a single piece of software there would be little use for multiple objects of the same code. Say you put all functions into a class and when you started the script you used $func = new function; that would be a waste of resources since your only going to use one function object in the script.

Basically its a balance between speed and usability.

[fury]

Which way is faster? I know Invision uses a crapload of classes and it's extremely fast. It seems to clean up the code a lot, too. I haven't delved much into the classes section of my book, though, so I probably wouldn't be able to find out either way.

[S3rg1o]

scott are you saying essentially that even with php 5's release that vbulletin will not migrate towards an OOP scripting style?

[Scott MacVicar]

we've not even finished the current release of vBulletin, nothing has been thought about the next release at all.