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Reply-To: bishop@php.net
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2019 03:33:03 -0400
Message-ID: <CAEYWF=4v5D-wUAKZHWdFzh_0VxcGo418805x5GaMj2BmHH+-3Q@mail.gmail.com>
To: Theodore Brown <theodorejb@outlook.com>
Cc: PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000f45cc70587a64ca6"
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Revive Number Format Separator RFC
From: bishop@php.net (Bishop Bettini)

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On Sun, Apr 28, 2019 at 1:47 PM Theodore Brown <theodorejb@outlook.com>
wrote:

> On Sat, Apr 27, 2019 at 10:25 PM Stanislav Malyshev <smalyshev@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I am not exactly against this feature, but the potential for abuse
> > \- like enabling people using integers for things that are not
> > integers and should not be stored as integers - worries me now.
>
> Based on the usage analysis Bishop did, people already use integers
> for number-like values (e.g. phone and social security numbers) that
> can be better represented in other ways.
>
> Perhaps adding the numeric separator feature can actually be an
> opportunity to discourage such misuse. We can add a paragraph to the
> RFC (and the documentation if it is accepted) that lists examples of
> usage that should be avoided.
>
> Ultimately there remains many legitimate uses of large numbers in
> code (e.g. scientific constants, unit test values, business logic
> thresholds, etc.), and this feature is a simple way to improve their
> readability.
>
> I've lost count of the number of times I've been debugging a failing
> test and struggling to count the number and position of digits to
> make sure I have the right value. This feature would save time when
> reading code and indeed prevent a lot of mistakes in the first place.
>

Well said.

One need not agree with an implementation to appreciate the improved
readability.

If you'd like to re-open this for voting, I'm able to assist with the RFC
process and any code changes.

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