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Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2026 13:23:56 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Polling API
To: Jakub Zelenka <bukka@php.net>,
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From: tim@bastelstu.be (=?UTF-8?Q?Tim_D=C3=BCsterhus?=)

Hi

On 10/30/25 22:06, Jakub Zelenka wrote:
> I would like to introduce a new polling API RFC that is part of my stream
> evolution work:
> 
> https://wiki.php.net/rfc/poll_api

Since you made some larger changes to the RFC, rather than checking each 
change individually, I've taken another full look at the RFC and have 
the following remarks:

- Context::wait() takes a millisecond timeout. This feels insufficiently 
granular. I am wondering if we should rather use either micro (as 
returned by microtime) or nanoseconds (as returned by hrtime) - or 
possible an instance of DateInterval (which would use microsecond 
resolution).

- For Handle: I assume that getFileDescriptor() should be abstract?

- For Handle I am wondering about abstract class vs interface. Since the 
Handle presumably doesn't have any non-abstract methods, an interface 
feels more correct / more flexible.

- For Handle: What happens if I extend this class in userland and attach 
it to a Context. Will things break? What if I return the number of a 
non-existent FD?

- For the stubs: It would be useful if you used the “generics notation” 
for the array returns. e.g. `@return list<Backend>` for 
Backend::getAvailableBackends(). This makes it easier to understand how 
exactly the result will look like to check for mistakes / suboptimal 
choices.

- InactiveWatcherException: This one feels more like a programmer error, 
so should possibly be a PollError / InactiveWatcherError (but I don't 
know enough about the topic to be sure).

- Internal API: For php_poll_wait(), the timeout should probably be a 
struct timespec for future-proofing.

- Policy-wise: I just added the Abstain option to the voting widget.

- Examples: I like them. They nicely showcase how the API works!

Best regards
Tim Düsterhus