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To: Tomi Kaistila <tomi@cumulo.fi>
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Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:12:43 -0500
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] RE: Optional scalar type hinting
From: sam@sambarrow.com (Sam Barrow)

On Thu, 2008-01-03 at 22:01 +0200, Tomi Kaistila wrote:
> > Broken record perhaps? I am getting a bit tired of this "just use
> Java
> > argument", it's perhaps even a bit arrogant. From what I read there
> is
> > plenty of people that want type hints for static types - there's a
> few
> > patches out there, it doesn't slow down the general case. So why
> should
> > we *not* add it? (And yes, I changed my mind)
> Same here. I am getting generally tired of the attitude some 
> politically-correct people seem to have about writing "javaish" code. What 
> the heck is "javaish" code anyway? Most features that exist in both PHP and 
> Java can also be found in myriad of other languages and it has so far not 
> stopped the development team from adding a feature when it is clearly useful 
> and (most importantly) desired an uncounted number of people.
> 
> In fact those who oppose the feature seem only capable of doing so with 
> hair-splitting rhetorics.

Thank you, I've been thinking this stuff for a while now, ever since the
attitude I got when first introducing my patch. I'm glad some people
agree with me.

I don't care what my code looks like, and it's not written in some holy
PHP bible that PHP's one and only purpose of existence is to not be like
Java. If a good feature comes along, it should be evaluated on its pros
and cons, not whether or not it reminds us of Java or any other language
for that matter.

I'm sorry I just have no idea where people come up with this stuff. We
are supposed to be thinking technically and logically as we are all
obviously computer people, not like some Java-hating cult. The issue
seems incredibly simple to me, if there's a good feature and it's worth
adding, add it.