$obj()->var syntax for accessors?

[TomB]

Just to put what ServerStorm was hinting towards on the table and re-introducing some flexibility and separation of concerns. I've severely cut down the class for ease of demonstration:

interface DogRenderer {
    public function render($name, $age);
}

class Dog {
    protected $name;
    protected $age;
    
    public function dispatch(DogRenderer $renderer) {
        $renderer->render($this->name, $this->age);
    }
    
}


class MyDogRenderer implements DogRenderer {
    protected $html;
    
    public function render($name, $age) {
        $this->html = 'Name: ' . $name . ' Age: ' . $age;
    }
    
    public function output() {
        return $this->html;
    }
}


$dog = new Dog();
$renderer = new MyDogRenderer();
$dog->dispatch($renderer);
echo $renderer->output(); 

Which should remove some of the valid criticism noted above.

However, my issue still stands, adding a single field e.g. "weight" requires:

-Adding the protected property
-Extending the interface (we can't modify DogRenderer as we don't know where it's currently used)
-Either adding a new dispatch method for the new interface to Dog
--Or adding some logic to the dispatch function to check which interface it's been passed (of course, if php supported method overloading this wouldn't be an issue)

Wheras with a getter or public property, you add the property and change the HTML. The former method is a maintainability nightmare, in my opinion.