Newsgroups: php.internals
Path: news.php.net
Xref: news.php.net php.internals:79637
Mailing-List: contact internals-help@lists.php.net; run by ezmlm
Received-SPF: pass (pb1.pair.com: domain ajf.me designates 192.64.116.200 as permitted sender)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Message-ID: <2F9B99EF-538C-4225-95A4-943F57DADF69@ajf.me>
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 18:35:00 +0000
To: internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 8.1 \(1993\))
Subject: [PATCH] Consistent type names in error messages
From: ajf@ajf.me (Andrea Faulds)

Good evening,

Unfortunately, zend_parse_parameters and userland type hint error =
messages use outdated type names, and don=E2=80=99t even do so =
consistently. For example:

$ php -r 'fread(0, 0);'
PHP Warning:  fread() expects parameter 1 to be resource, integer given =
in Command line code on line 1

$ php -r 'fread(fopen("data:text/plain,test", "r"), =
fopen("data:text/plain,test", "r"));'
PHP Warning:  fread() expects parameter 2 to be long, resource given in =
Command line code on line 1

$ php -r 'function foo(foobar $x) {} foo(1.0);'
PHP Catchable fatal error:  Argument 1 passed to foo() must be an =
instance of foobar, double given, called in Command line code on line 1 =
and defined in Command line code on line 1

Specifically, zend_parse_parameters will always =E2=80=9Cexpect=E2=80=9D =
a =E2=80=9Clong=E2=80=9D, yet when the expected type isn=E2=80=99t an =
integer and an integer is passed, it says =E2=80=9Cinteger given=E2=80=9D.=
 Alongside this, both userland type hint errors and =
zend_parse_parameters errors refer to =E2=80=9Cdouble=E2=80=9D and not =
=E2=80=9Cfloat=E2=80=9D.

I want to change the type names to be consistent, because I think our =
current inconsistency is confusing. Integers are sometimes ints or =
integers, but other times longs. Floats are sometimes floats, but other =
times doubles. If scalar type hints are ever added, then jettisoning the =
old aliases means we don=E2=80=99t have to add extra reserved words.

I=E2=80=99ve made a patch which makes zend_parse_parameters and userland =
type hints consistently show =E2=80=9Cinteger=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9Cfloat=E2=
=80=9D rather than =E2=80=9Clong=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9Cdouble=E2=80=9D: =
https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/955

I also wrote a GNU sed script which I used to update the tests: =
https://gist.github.com/TazeTSchnitzel/c0d780466def9f226318

Alongside error messages, there are some other places that could be =
changed. Obviously the return value of gettype() shouldn=E2=80=99t be =
changed, but I think that we should, for example, make is_long() an =
alias of is_int() and not the other way around.

Thoughts?

--
Andrea Faulds
http://ajf.me/