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Thread-Topic: Proposal: shorthand syntax for initializing arbitrary-precision
 ("bigint") numbers?
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Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2020 00:50:46 +0000
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Subject: Proposal: shorthand syntax for initializing arbitrary-precision
 ("bigint") numbers?
From: tysonandre775@hotmail.com (tyson andre)

Hi internals,=0A=
=0A=
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Ob=
jects/BigInt=0A=
was a similar approach another dynamically typed language recently took to=
=0A=
support convenient arbitrary precision.=0A=
=0A=
What are your thoughts on making `123_456_000_000_000_000_000_000n` a short=
hand for `gmp_init('123456000000000000000000')` (or a call with equivalent =
results)=0A=
(similar to existing backtick string syntax is a shorthand for `shell_exec(=
)`)=0A=
=0A=
GMP objects already overrides numeric operators. (but having number-like sy=
ntax would make code using those more readable)=0A=
=0A=
Supporting bigints as anything other than explicitly different objects in P=
HP's type system=0A=
seemed from a discussion thread 5 years ago to have several drawbacks - htt=
ps://externals.io/message/77863 :=0A=
=0A=
- Native bigints by default as a result of integer operations would cause a=
 B.C. break for extensions for=0A=
  php user code relying on float behavior. The way that division would be h=
andled would change, for example.=0A=
- Decrease in performance was seen during a patch being worked on 5 years a=
go to automatically convert overflowing integer operations to big integers=
=0A=
- Requirement to update opcache's inferences to support big integers=0A=
=0A=
A prototype implementation is available at https://github.com/php/php-src/p=
ull/5930=0A=
which goes into more details about implementation concerns, licensing of GM=
P, and other drawbacks of representing them as a GMP/BigInt class instance =
instead of something separate from regular objects.=0A=
=0A=
- Tyson=