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Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2015 00:18:06 +0000
Cc: Nikita Popov <nikita.ppv@gmail.com>,
 PHP Internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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To: Stanislav Malyshev <smalyshev@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Scalar Type Hints
From: ajf@ajf.me (Andrea Faulds)


> On 1 Jan 2015, at 23:58, Stanislav Malyshev <smalyshev@gmail.com> =
wrote:
>=20
>> ability to check correct usage with tooling. I'd also like to point =
out
>> that Hack uses a strict type scheme and it seems to work well there =
(though
>=20
> Java uses strict typing too. And Perl has no typing whatsoever. So =
what?
> How bringing an example of one language that does what you want is an
> argument for PHP to do that? There are examples of languages doing
> practically anything imaginable.

To add to what Stas says: C, in fact, has weak parameter typing. A =
function taking a long long can be passed a char, or a double, or even a =
pointer. Now, there=E2=80=99s a good case to be made that C=E2=80=99s =
weak parameter typing is bad. But that=E2=80=99s mostly because C will =
let you shoot yourself in the foot and overflow bounds, corrupt memory =
or cause a segfault. PHP doesn=E2=80=99t have these issues though, so =
that argument doesn=E2=80=99t really apply.

By the way, =E2=80=9Cweak parameter typing=E2=80=9D sounds like a good =
name for this. Makes more sense than =E2=80=9Cnon-strict=E2=80=9D or =
=E2=80=9Ccasting=E2=80=9D.

--
Andrea Faulds
http://ajf.me/