Unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM, expecting T_NS_Separator

Question

I moved an application from an Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Server to a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) server over the weekend. My error log is full of the PHP errors in the subject line referencing the following function:

function wfTalkHereArticleFromTitle( &$title, &$article ) {
    global $wgRequest, $wgTalkHereNamespaces;

    if (isset($title->noTalkHere))
        return true; //Stop recursion

    $action    = $wgRequest->getVal( 'action'    );
    $oldid     = $wgRequest->getVal( 'oldid'     );
    $diff      = $wgRequest->getVal( 'diff'      );

    if ($action == 'purge')
        $action = NULL; //"purge" is not considered an action in this context

    if ($action || $oldid || $diff)
        return true;

    $ns = $title->getNamespace();

    if (!Namespace::isTalk($ns) && Namespace::canTalk($ns) && $title->exists()
        && ( !$wgTalkHereNamespaces || in_array($ns, $wgTalkHereNamespaces) ) ) {

        $tns = Namespace::getTalk($ns);
        $talk = Title::makeTitle($tns, $title->getDBKey());

        if ($talk && $talk->userCan('read')) {
            $t = clone $title;
            $t->noTalkHere = true; //Stop recursion

            $a = MediaWiki::articleFromTitle( $t );
            $article = new TalkHereArticle( $a, $talk );
        }
    }
    return true;
}

The error is thrown in the

If (!Namespace::isTalk($ns)

statement. This error is a new one for me. How might I resolve it?

I changed the offending code to:

if ( !Ns::isTalk($ns) && Ns::canTalk($ns) && $title->exists()
    && ( !$wgTalkHereNamespaces || in_array($ns, $wgTalkHereNamespaces) ) ) {

    $tns = Ns::getTalk($ns);
    $talk = Title::makeTitle($tns, $title->getDBKey());

    if ($talk && $talk->userCan('read')) {
        $t = clone $title;
        $t->noTalkHere = true; //Stop recursion

        $a = MediaWiki::articleFromTitle( $t );
        $article = new TalkHereArticle( $a, $talk );
    }
}
return true;

Would that suffice to fix the error, at least in this file?

By the way, the error is actually spelled "PAAMAYIM NEKUDOTAYIM" (helpful for when Googling). As Neal mentions, "PAAMAYIM NEKUDOTAYIM" is Hebrew for double colon (the original authors of PHP were Israeli). — Aaron J Spetner, Jan 04 '12 at 22:17
The authors of the Zend Engine were Israeli, Lasmus was not. — StevenPatz, May 03 '15 at 05:31

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 04 '12 at 22:14

It looks like your new server is running PHP 5.3, while your old one was running an earlier version.

In PHP 5.3, namespace is a keyword, thanks to the new namespace feature.

Your existing Namespace class is going to need to be renamed. The parse error is occurring as the code tries to resolve Namespace::isTalk() into a namespace name. (The syntax for doing so would be something akin to namespace Foo; it becomes confused at seeing the :: resolution operator.)

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 04 '12 at 22:14

3

PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM is the name for the :: (it is Hebrew for twice colon)

Check all the lines that contain :: and make sure they are all correct calls.

answered Jan 04 '12 at 22:14

Naftali

144,921
39
244
303

@Gordon I see (also btw -- not everyone's answers are in the same order :-P) – Naftali Jan 04 '12 at 22:17

Unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM, expecting T_NS_Separator

2 Answers2

Linked