Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report
a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php

PHP follows strict is_a inheritance.

By the way, it is called signature and even if you could change it it would not solve the problem. And anyway it would break inheritance rules.

I am sorry, perhaps I should rephrase (I was rushed when I wrote the original bug report) and I don't think I was especially clear.

In general, we are speaking strictly of Method Overriding.  PHP currently allows concrete classes to override methods in abstract classes as demonstrated by this code:

webdeveloper@webdevelopment ~/tmp $ cat test_method_override.php 
<?php

error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);

class Z_Abstract
{
  public function someFunc($one, $two)
  {  }
}

class Z_Concrete extends Z_Abstract
{
  public function & someFunc($uno, $dos, $tres)
  {  }
}

$o = new Z_Concrete();
webdeveloper@webdevelopment ~/tmp $ php test_method_override.php 
webdeveloper@webdevelopment ~/tmp $ 

As you can see, no E_STRICT was triggered, thus allowing the concrete class to override the method from the abstract class.

On the other hand, when adding an _empty_ interface to the superclass hierarchy, the behavior changes.  The simple inclusion of an interface now (albeit empty) seemingly shouldn't add any complexities to method overriding for methods outside the scope of the interface itself.  I have done a bit more homework, and it seems like not alot of IS_A inheritance literature exists to describe this problem, let alone justify the behavior we are seeing in practice..  See code:

webdeveloper@webdevelopment ~/tmp $ cat test_method_override2.php 
<?php

error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);

interface Z_Interface
{ }

class Z_Abstract implements Z_Interface
{
  public function someFunc($one, $two)
  {  }
}

class Z_Concrete extends Z_Abstract
{
  public function & someFunc($uno, $dos, $tres)
  {  }
}

$o = new Z_Concrete();
webdeveloper@webdevelopment ~/tmp $ php test_method_override2.php 

Strict standards: Declaration of Z_Concrete::someFunc() should be compatible with that of Z_Abstract::someFunc() in /home/webdeveloper/tmp/test_method_override2.php on line 14



At the very least, I looks like one of the two is broken (At least in the spirit of OOP as it relates to polymorphism and overriding methods.)

PS. I did check this with the internals list before I posted.. And I think you actually confirmed it for me on the list

http://news.php.net/php.internals/29646

Thank you for your time,
-ralph

Marcus,

After re-reading, I didn't think that I was clear in my original bug report, so I attempted to clarify the matter (2 posts up).  I still think this is a problem and that it hinders the usage of interfaces as it restricts concrete classes from overriding methods introduced at the abstract layer, not the interface layer.

If this is still by design, go ahead and close, but I wanted to make absolutely sure as most people either do not care about E_STRICT, or haven't run into the problem yet ;)

Thanks again,
Ralph

I took a look into it, here's some findings:

1. There's no difference between how arguments are matched with and without interface. The difference is that with no interface binding would happen in this case in compile time, so if your error reporting did not have E_STRICT by default, error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT) is not executed and so the error is not seen.

2. someFunc($uno, $dos, $tres) is not a good replacement for someFunc($uno, $dos) even ignoring the by-ref return, since it has extra required argument. Making it not required should pass the strict check.

3. I think it can be allowed to override function that returns by-val with function that returns by-ref, but not vice versa. 

Should this not be possible without errors or notices? I am 
overloading an overridden method. If memory serves me, I am able to do 
this in other OO languages (Java, .NET/C#).

class BaseClass {

	public function TestFunction ($parameter) {
		var_dump($parameter);
	}
}

class FooClass extends BaseClass {

	public function TestFunction () {
		parent::TestFunction('This is Foo');
	}
}

class BarClass extends BaseClass {

	public function TestFunction () {
		parent::TestFunction('This is Bar');
	}
}

$test = new FooClass();
$test->TestFunction();

$test = new BarClass();
$test->TestFunction();


Instead:

Strict Standards: Declaration of FooClass::TestFunction() should be 
compatible with that of BaseClass::TestFunction()

Strict Standards: Declaration of BarClass::TestFunction() should be 
compatible with that of BaseClass::TestFunction()

PHP does not allow for method overloading.

as stas said, E_STRICT needs to be set prior parsing the file