[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #60190: Drop PHP 4 support for arrays with 1 object element

[WordPress Trac]

#60190: Drop PHP 4 support for arrays with 1 object element
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
 Reporter:  kkmuffme                             |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement                          |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                               |   Milestone:  6.9
Component:  Plugins                              |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                               |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch has-unit-tests early 2nd-  |     Focuses:
  opinion                                        |
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
Changes (by johnbillion):

 * keywords:  has-patch has-unit-tests early => has-patch has-unit-tests
     early 2nd-opinion


Comment:

 To clarify about the fatal error: this isn't actually related to native
 type handling, that's just where the fatal error occurs when a callback
 function receives an object as its first parameter instead of the expected
 array containing an object. The underlying problem is, as @kkmuffme
 mentions, that `do_action` will convert arrays with only 1 object into
 that object before passing it to the callbacks. Regardless of whether a
 callback uses a type declaration, it'll receive a value of the wrong type
 as its first parameter.

 While I'm in favour of the fix and the tests in
 https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/5839 I'm concerned
 about what might break. This is essentially a revert of [46568]. #48312
 provides an example of code that will behave differently after this fix:

 {{{#!php
 do_action( 'some_action', array( $this ) );
 }}}

 Currently a callback hooked into this action receives the object as its
 first parameter instead of an array containing the object. This proposed
 change "fixes" that but will break any existing code that works around
 this funky behaviour.

 Does the fix justify the back-compat break?

 CC @david.binda @SergeyBiryukov @azaozz

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/60190#comment:14>
WordPress Trac <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/>
WordPress publishing platform