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Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:00:50 CEST
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To: internals@lists.php.net
Subject: Re: AW: [PHP-DEV] Method overloading by method signature
From: salsi@icosaedro.it (Umberto Salsi)

Posting to newsgroup php.internals, you wrote:

> > But if you want to be more strict and limit the coder to use your
> > functions only with a specific parameter signature (and thats the
> 
> The purpose of signature overloading in most languages isn't input type 
> control, it's different functionality on different types. However, 
> unlike many other languages, PHP does not have static typing, and that 
> would not allow to know which function is called immediately, only at 
> runtime. This has both performance impact and code transparency impact - 
> you wouldn't know which function will be called until runtime. I am not 
> convinced this added complexity serves any real need - though you are 
> welcome to prove otherwise, i.e. present some use case when one can't do 
> without signature overloading.
> 
> > only reason to use type hints - to ensure the method is used
> > correctly and build more robust applications), it is better to tell
> 
> BTW, I'm not sure how exactly it makes the code more robust - if you 
> call it with wrong type and it's not checked, the app would probably die 
> on fatal error. If you call it with wrong type and it is checked, the 
> app would die on fatal error couple of lines above. Unless you use some 
> kind of static analysis tool to verify your app prior to deployment (if 
> you know such tools please tell me!) I don't see much difference here, 
> mostly syntax sugar and enforcing right style (which is not bad - just 
> it's not that big a deal).
> 
> > lost in this move (boo!). No longer can you override a method &
> > provide an incompatible signature. This mixture of strict OO + PHP's
> > traditional loose typing is really shooting PHP in the foot.
> 
> If you don't want strict signatures - why you are using them? Nobody 
> forces you to type your arguments. And inheritance is certainly not for 
> overriding objects with incompatible signatures, if you try to do it you 
> are misusing it.
> 
> > I think, that this ist the reason why nearly nobody uses this great
> > new feature (to ensure that the passed parameters are correct),
> 
> The above statement is not true. This feature is used by many 
> developers. Please stop using "unless you do it my way, nobody will use 
> PHP" argument - it doesn't work.
> -- 
> Stanislav Malyshev, Zend Software Architect
> stas@zend.com   http://www.zend.com/
> (408)253-8829   MSN: stas@zend.com


Ciao,
 ___ 
/_|_\  Umberto Salsi
\/_\/  www.icosaedro.it