[meta] Fix the DX of the link generator

$items['create_account'] = array(
  '#type' => 'link',
  '#title' => t('Create new account'),
  '#href' => 'user/register',
  '#options' => array(
    'attributes' => array(
      'title' => t('Create a new user account.'),
      'class' => array('create-account-link'),
    ),
  ),
);

There is an issue to add a #route_name for #type => link

@tim.plunkett - #route_name is done now in the link generator patch.

re: DX see: #2078285: Add short-cut methods to the \Drupal class for generating URLs and links from routes - I might consider this duplicate?

      $items['create_account'] = Drupal::l(t('Create new account'), 'user_register', array(), array(
        'attributes' => array(
          'title' => t('Create a new user account.'),
          'class' => array('create-account-link'),
        ),
      ));

basically we just need to bikeshed Drupal::l() or Drupal::link()

Great, then

$items['create_account'] = array(
  '#type' => 'link',
  '#title' => t('Create new account'),
  '#route_name' => 'user_register',
  '#options' => array(
    'attributes' => array(
      'title' => t('Create a new user account.'),
      'class' => array('create-account-link'),
    ),
  ),
);

And yes, I'd consider this a dupe, but leaving that to @webchick.

Also for themers:
#2073811: Add a url generator twig extension

Also, I would be totally fine if we tweaked l() and url() to take a path OR an array of route name and parameters, though many would barf...

function url($path = NULL, array $options = array()) {
  $generator = Drupal::urlGenerator();
  try {
    if (is_array($path)) {
      list($route_name, $route_parameters) = $path;
      $url = $generator->generateFromRoute($route_name, $route_parameters, $options);
    }
    else {
      $url = $generator->generateFromPath($path, $options);
    }
  }
  catch (GeneratorNotInitializedException $e) {
    // Fallback to using globals.
    // @todo Remove this once there is no code that calls url() when there is
    //   no request.
    global $base_url, $base_path, $script_path;
    $generator->setBasePath($base_path);
    $generator->setBaseUrl($base_url . '/');
    $generator->setScriptPath($script_path);
    $url = $generator->generateFromPath($path, $options);
  }
  return $url;
}

I very much agree with tim's approach. We should take a hard look at where these functions are used, because I dont get what the use case is for having these is outside the theme layer.

There will be a perf hit using render arrays for all links instead of sending them directly to l()/generator as there are extra function calls and processing involved in drupal_render() and drupal_pre_render_link().

That is not a performance hit worth considering.

The biggest use outside the theme layer is for translated text and help text where we frequently call url() now.

Other than that, I agree they should rarely need to be called directly.

@webchick - the only thing to decide really is the method name - I think we should leave the other issue open for discussion of the patch to add Drupal::l(), and we should either close this one or make it a meta.

change title

...

This was left open until the issue summary of #2078285: Add short-cut methods to the \Drupal class for generating URLs and links from routes was rewritten, but that already got committed.

If you want to discuss moving link generation over to render arrays, #2046881: [meta] Avoid "early rendered" strings where beneficial to do so, build structured data to pass to drupal_render() once instead

Updated issue summary.

These days this would look like the following:

 $items['create_account'] = (new Link(t('Create new account'), Url::fromRoute('user.register', array(), array(
        'attributes' => array(
          'title' => t('Create a new user account.'),
          'class' => array('create-account-link'),
        ),
      ))); // modulo more or less ")"

But this could be certainly moved to

 $items['create_account'] = Link::fromUrl(t('Create new account'), Url::fromRoute('user.register', array(), array(
        'attributes' => array(
          'title' => t('Create a new user account.'),
          'class' => array('create-account-link'),
        ),
      )))->toString(); // modulo more or less ")"