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Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:57:12 -0700
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Strict type hints (parameter and return value)
From: stas@zend.com (Stanislav Malyshev)

Hi!

> So:
> function foo($var) { if(!is_int($var)) { throw new exception('not int'); }}

What's the use of such code? If $var is '1' and not 1, what's the use of 
throwing an exception and having to handle it later (basically by 
failing the task, since you don't know how to do foo() now) - instead of 
just doing with that 1 what was intended for? There's no any difference 
between 1 and '1' that can be important to anybody. Only difference is 
the way it is represented in underlying bits in zvals, about which 
nobody should ever care. That's like making function that would accept 
only arguments that has 3'rd bit of pointer set to 1 and 5th bit set to 
0, and reject all others. No sane application should ever behave this 
way. Writing such function is just plain wrong, it replaces the 
substance of programming with nitpicking over the details that are not 
important. Whole phenomenon of dynamic languages has grown on the 
principle of liberating people from caring for bits and concentrate on 
substance, and now you try to drag the bits back in.

> which is called like this in both cases, maybe with a try catch etc etc:
> foo((int) $baz['bar']);

So every time you call foo you need try/catch? And that's supposed to be 
_good_?
-- 
Stanislav Malyshev, Zend Software Architect
stas@zend.com   http://www.zend.com/
(408)253-8829   MSN: stas@zend.com