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To: Stanislav Malyshev <stas@zend.com>
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Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:32:39 +0200
References: <485AE658.3050204@zend.com> <0BA4A4FD-7FA2-49C0-B7B9-06CDDCF2EFBF@pooteeweet.org> <485EC24C.4030607@zend.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] cleaning up the functions - any volunteers?
From: mls@pooteeweet.org (Lukas Kahwe Smith)


On 22.06.2008, at 23:21, Stanislav Malyshev wrote:

> Hi!
>
>> is this in any way related to the parameter parsing API change that  
>> caused the BC break in array_merge() back in PHP 5.0? If so then I  
>> would
>
> I don't really remember about array_merge in detail, but this change  
> shouldn't (I know, famous last words :) create any BC break unless  
> you rely on weird stuff like array-to-string implicit conversion  
> (which you really really shouldn't touch with a ten foot pole anyway).

The break in array_merge() was that previously it would cast the  
parameters to an array. As such a popular use case before the  
parameter parsing change was the following:

$foo = null;
$bar = array_merge($foo, $array);

Since 5.0 this would lead to $bar being false and not $array. While it  
could be argued that the user should do an explicit cast himself, it  
was still a clear BC issue that caused a lot of issues for developers.

regards,
Lukas Kahwe Smith
mls@pooteeweet.org