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Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2016 14:58:29 +0000
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To: Andrey Andreev <narf@devilix.net>
Cc: PHP <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Re: [Concept] Magic Casting
From: bowersbros@gmail.com (Alex Bowers)

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Sorry for dupe, hit reply not reply-all.

I don't see how the interface is equivalent.

The benefit of this, is that you can convert types passed into a method to
the type you expect automagically, Castable wouldn't allow that, only a new
magic method (or reflection and user land code possibly?) would allow this.

As for the limitation of only one parameter being accepted, what would the
other possible parameters be?

Since this is based entirely on the casted variable, there can only
possibly be one variable there, the one passed into that position in the
functions arguments.

Arguably, this feature would resolve some bugs in peoples code, because it
can allow better enforcing of types.

Currently, a place that accepts a Collection would not be able to type hint
it if it wants to also accept an array, instead it would have to check and
change inside the method, but that shouldn't be the role of the method.

The method just wants to assume, and work on the assumption that it is the
correct type, but without losing flexibility.

The ability to cast to your own type automatically would help with this
assumption, as now everywhere would be able to assume Collection, and use
it as so, but allow the current flexibility of arrays being passed in also.

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