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Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2017 11:01:44 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Mixed Typehint
From: info@phpgangsta.de (Michael Kliewe)

Am 19.12.2017 um 07:32 schrieb Stanislav Malyshev:
>
>> I'd like to propose and discuss Mixed Typehint RFC for PHP 7.3:
>> https://wiki.php.net/rfc/mixed-typehint
>>
>> The purpose of this RFC is to introduce "mixed" typehint on language level
>> to be used
>> as a valid typehint. PHP currently forces users to not use any type in case
>> the
>> type is mixed/unclear. This makes code inconsistent and less explicit. With
> I'm not sure what's the point of it. "mixed" means "any type". Not
> writing a type means "any type". So why waste space and add something
> that contributes nothing when everybody is already using the current
> convention and the new one does not add anything at all?
A "mixed" type hint says that it's really "mixed", and the developer who
wrote that code did not forget to add a type hint.
If you see a place where a type hint is missing, you don't know if it's
mixed, or the developer/you missed to write the correct type hint.

That's the benefit I see. I would explicitly write "mixed" everywhere in
a fully type-hinted codebase, to eliminate this thought while reading:
Is it really mixed, or was this place overseen and it's not mixed, but
something else...
Because it's optional, nobody is hurt, but some people (like me) could
add this explicit information.

Michael