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Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:54:30 +0200
Message-ID: <AANLkTimPd32ZV6LAT-3h-6S7EmZSt+Fs+j_nidP+R8Xi@mail.gmail.com>
To: Zeev Suraski <zeev@zend.com>
Cc: Stas Malyshev <smalyshev@sugarcrm.com>, Internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Strict typing
From: phpwnd@gmail.com (Josh Davis)

On 11 August 2010 20:40, Zeev Suraski <zeev@zend.com> wrote:
> Josh,
>
> This too (having both options) was debated many times. =A0Read the archiv=
es.

I have already read the archives thank you very much. I'm sure you
have too and you remember that there's never been a consensus. I'm
sure that Derick remembers them as well, yet he restarted the
discussion instead of letting it rot in limbo.

> Short version? =A0Strict typing is evil. =A0The only thing that's even wo=
rse?
> =A0Adding both Strict typing and something else. =A0Why? =A0You get every=
thing
> that's bad about strict typing, combined with the added confusion of two
> ways of doing similar things.

That's your opinion and I beg to differ. I find that having both type
of "typehints" is having the best of both world at almost no cost. I
am no more confused by the use of parentheses in a method's
declaration than I am by their use in a if construct, in a new Foo()
instantiation or used anywhere else in PHP.

Knowing the difference between different constructs is part of
learning a language (just like learning that $a=3D=3D$b and $a=3D=3D=3Db ar=
e
different) and I don't see librairies meant to be used by beginners
use strict typechecking anyway. In all likelihood, it will only be
used by users and frameworks that want the greatest degree of control
over their own code, possibly using strict typechecking for internal
stuff and "weak" typehinting (smartcasting!) for public APIs.