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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Scalar Type Hints
From: larry@garfieldtech.com (Larry Garfield)

On 01/01/2015 10:35 AM, Andrea Faulds wrote:
>> Now, going on step back here (talking about me), I'm speaking up because
>>> my< needs are developer are different (mostly speaking about backend
>> code, interfaces, libraries, frameworks) but OTOH I'm not a big known
>> open source framework developer either ;)
>>
>> I would honestly be interested what the big framework/library players
>> actually want/need; do they prefer this implicit scalar type conversion
>> system or rather have a rigid system like the current object types but
>> for scalars too? I think decision on this RFC should include also
>> "their" saying too.
>>
>> It's complex because we can't force anyone to participate but I think
>> above all these are the most important audience here because they know
>> what they want and they know what their users want. I say this because
>> usage of object types in PHP is almost non-existent (or, there are just
>> too few cases) compared to the architecture of some of the
>> framework/library systems out there.
> That’s a fair point. I’m not sure how they feel about it.
>
> Their views aren’t necessarily the most important, though. Frameworks can do whatever they like, but what ultimately matters is what’s best for the end users, who don’t deal with the framework internals.
>
> Thanks.
> --
> Andrea Faulds
> http://ajf.me/


The "end users" of php-src are "people who write PHP code".  Those are 
the end users that we should be concerned with.  "People who visit web 
sites" are *their* end users.  Those people don't care in the slightest 
what happens on this list; they care that the people writing PHP code 
can do their job in a minimum amount of time and with a minimum amount 
of bugs.

So asking developers of the major PHP frameworks and applications what 
would help them do their job in a minimum amount of time with a minimum 
amount of bugs is absolutely a worthwhile endeavor to figure out what 
would be "best".

"User research" in this case, means talking to the lead developers of 
Zend Framework, Symfony, Drupal, Wordpress, phpBB, and so on. I'd be 
happy to make introduction for you on the FIG mailing list, which is the 
best collection of such people I know of.

--Larry Garfield