refactor: remove unneeded abstract public methods

[paulbalandan]

Description
These are already defined by ConnectionInterface.

Checklist:

• Securely signed commits
• Component(s) with PHPDoc blocks, only if necessary or adds value
• Unit testing, with >80% coverage
• User guide updated
• Conforms to style guide

[MGatner]

It feels a little weird to have implements ConnectionInterface without these methods. Normally I would look at an abstract class to see what I need to fulfill as far as the contract, which won't work in this case. I understand the deduplication, just noting that it feels a bit odd.

Does anyone have examples of this somewhere else (even outside of CodeIgniter)? Where an abstract class implements the interface without the actual methods?

[paulbalandan]

If you are not using an IDE then I believe it is normal to feel the weirdness.

PHP won't complain the absence of the interface's methods in the abstract class because it is abstract (i.e. incomplete). In that case, PHP will assume the concrete classes will complete fulfilling the interface.

[MGatner]

It's an interesting consideration that I haven't come across before. I did a little research and didn't find much but this rather mixed-quality, old conversation thread: https://thuvienphapluat.edu.vn/can-abstract-class-implement-interface-in-php

If you two concur on this approach then I'm good with it.

[MGatner]

If you are not using an IDE

I use Intelephense but I don't know that it really matters for this case unless your IDE is somehow generating the initial class. When I'm fulfilling an abstraction I literally copy the definitions (either from the interface or the abstract methods from the abstract class) and work on filling them in. I was just noting that in this case one would have to know to go to the interface in this case, not the abstract class.

[paulbalandan]

This is an example from Symfony Console's InputInterface

InputInterface defines a getFirstArgument method:
https://github.com/symfony/symfony/blob/c2ad569b9f66f6ff0080a93598a4c89682da1cb6/src/Symfony/Component/Console/Input/InputInterface.php#L30

but abstract class Input does not define it nor list it as abstract:
https://github.com/symfony/symfony/blob/c2ad569b9f66f6ff0080a93598a4c89682da1cb6/src/Symfony/Component/Console/Input/Input.php#L28

because the child classes like ArgvInput will fulfill the contract:
https://github.com/symfony/symfony/blob/c2ad569b9f66f6ff0080a93598a4c89682da1cb6/src/Symfony/Component/Console/Input/ArgvInput.php#L263

[paulbalandan]

In my case using intelephense on VS Code if I'm writing a concrete class implementing an interface or extending an abstract class, intelephense will show a red notice that my concrete class needs to define this and that method.

[MGatner]

Awesome! Thanks for that research. Yes let's proceed with this.