Newsgroups: php.internals
Path: news.php.net
Xref: news.php.net php.internals:130370
Precedence: list
MIME-Version: 1.0
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2026 19:00:48 +0100
To: Larry Garfield <larry@garfieldtech.com>
Cc: php internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] enum SortDirection
In-Reply-To: <6c1fed72-7890-466d-8b2a-4bef608f8558@app.fastmail.com>
References: <5bec7fdd-e2d0-47ab-92d0-ead8eade21e6@bastelstu.be>
 <AM8P250MB01705C4FC45781D33C5A110EE27EA@AM8P250MB0170.EURP250.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM>
 <CF0E415D-EA81-404D-AE3A-2DF21AACDA3C@php.net>
 <0fdf66b9-2027-444b-bee5-01bed296e3c9@app.fastmail.com>
 <58700a4c-7d1b-4e4b-b6f9-adc5843b0206@bastelstu.be>
 <98259e0e-22e6-48ca-b520-b91ae8072e11@app.fastmail.com>
 <4562f90e687f719a18cacb43cae0db33@bastelstu.be>
 <6c1fed72-7890-466d-8b2a-4bef608f8558@app.fastmail.com>
Message-ID: <451508d52b85f4371e72497f5b94f18d@bastelstu.be>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8;
 format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
From: tim@bastelstu.be (=?UTF-8?Q?Tim_D=C3=BCsterhus?=)

Hi

Am 2026-03-16 17:55, schrieb Larry Garfield:
> […] Which functions?  How will I even know?  What's the plan here other 
> than "we can do that later quietly without telling anyone" (because 
> vanishingly few PHP devs look at Internals PRs that have no RFC)?  
> That's what is missing.

As with any other user-facing change, the changes to the function 
signatures would be listed in the NEWS file and the UPGRADING guide and 
would then be incorporated into the documentation, both in the 
function’s signature and the changelog that is available on every 
function page (e.g. “8.6.0 The $sorting_order parameter was widened to 
int|SortDirection”). I suppose that tools like Rector will also be able 
to suggest migrating from the old constants to the enum when that 
happens.

Best regards
Tim Düsterhus