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Doc Bug #54390 Please remove the Singleton Pattern from the Docs
Submitted: 2011-03-26 13:18 UTC Modified: 2011-07-11 11:56 UTC
Votes:4
Avg. Score:4.2 ± 0.8
Reproduced:3 of 4 (75.0%)
Same Version:1 (33.3%)
Same OS:1 (33.3%)
From: gordon at onlinehome dot de Assigned: salathe (profile)
Status: Closed Package: Documentation problem
PHP Version: Irrelevant OS:
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
View Developer Edit
 [2011-03-26 13:18 UTC] gordon at onlinehome dot de 
Description:
------------
The [chapter on Design Patterns in the Manual][1] starts with:

> Patterns are ways to describe best practices and good designs. They show a flexible solution to common programming problems.

and then goes on to show a Singleton Pattern. The problems Singletons solve do not exist in PHP. And even Erich Gamma thinks it's a Code Smell nowadays in general. Consequently, I think we should not educate people about this pattern and suggest removal.

[1]: http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.patterns.php

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 [2011-07-02 04:18 UTC] frozenfire@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Bogus
 [2011-07-02 04:18 UTC] frozenfire@php.net 
Singleton patterns are applicable to PHP, in a number of scenarios. The most 
common example is to maintain a single database connection for multiple instances 
of a database class.

Please do correct me if I'm wrong, but for now, I'm going to mark this bogus.
 [2011-07-11 11:56 UTC] salathe@php.net
-Status: Bogus +Status: Closed -Assigned To: +Assigned To: salathe
 [2011-07-11 11:56 UTC] salathe@php.net 
Gordon improved the description of the Singleton. See http://svn.php.net/viewvc?
view=revision&revision=313136
 
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