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Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:07:44 +0000
To: Robert Landers <landers.robert@gmail.com>
Cc: internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Renaming "strict types" to "scalar type coercion"
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From: internals@gpb.moe ("Gina P. Banyard")

On Tuesday, 18 June 2024 at 17:37, Robert Landers <landers.robert@gmail.com=
> wrote:

> Hello internals,
>=20
> [...]
>=20
> What are your thoughts?

As self-proclaimed leading expert on PHP type juggling.
That it is a terrible idea with no gains whatsoever.
Renaming the declare statement does not improve the situation.

> PS. Personally, I would rather unify non-strict and strict in some way
> that makes sense ... so, that route sounds nice too.

See my old meta RFC: https://github.com/Girgias/unify-typing-modes-rfc

It is a somewhat known hot take from mine that I think the strict_type decl=
are statement was a mistake. [1]
Mainly because it affects barely nothing in regard to the engine.

I have written/co-authored multiple RFCs over the years to make the default=
 coercion mode less whack. [2][3][4][5][6][7]
And my container/offset RFC is in the same vein [8] which lead me into a di=
fferent rabbit hole then the one I was expecting to explore which is addres=
sing PHP's weird comparison semantics. [9]

Therefore, I would rather we focus on *actually* fixing PHP's semantics, th=
an arguing about changing the name of something that shouldn't really exist=
 in the first place.


Best regards,

Gina P. Banyard


[1] Slide 68 of my PHP UK talk "PHP's Type System Dissected": https://gpb.m=
oe/doc/slides/PHP_Type_System_Talk_PHPUK2023.pdf
[2] https://wiki.php.net/rfc/saner-numeric-strings
[3] https://wiki.php.net/rfc/implicit-float-int-deprecate
[4] https://wiki.php.net/rfc/saner-inc-dec-operators
[5] https://wiki.php.net/rfc/locale_independent_float_to_string
[6] https://wiki.php.net/rfc/exit-as-function
[7] https://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecate-boolean-string-coercion
[8] https://github.com/Girgias/php-rfcs/blob/master/container-offset-behavi=
our.md
[9] https://github.com/Girgias/php-rfcs/blob/master/comparison-equality-sem=
antics.md