Newsgroups: php.internals
Path: news.php.net
Xref: news.php.net php.internals:83917
Mailing-List: contact internals-help@lists.php.net; run by ezmlm
Received-SPF: pass (pb1.pair.com: domain gmail.com designates 209.85.217.173 as permitted sender)
MIME-Version: 1.0
In-Reply-To: <CALrkBjYO0SGXBDiSJhxSpnG80S_qerTLL2SX4vi0WygstnM+gw@mail.gmail.com>
References: <BAY178-W418C61DF38879BED71640EDE140@phx.gbl>
	<3d639901ae85227b219e7ee59b3140fe@mail.gmail.com>
	<CA+kxMuQ52SOWp0dP0okVHrb8wF9U5TUX8OcYpNBP4rEPvdrpFA@mail.gmail.com>
	<CALrkBjYO0SGXBDiSJhxSpnG80S_qerTLL2SX4vi0WygstnM+gw@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2015 14:29:27 -0500
Message-ID: <CAAyV7nFM9fZYs7b+UiWrmHFcNHwqzRKYFgdeimuNTazZvZx2FA@mail.gmail.com>
To: Mike Willbanks <pencap@gmail.com>
Cc: Dan Ackroyd <danack@basereality.com>, Zeev Suraski <zeev@zend.com>, 
	Theodore Brown <theodorejb@outlook.com>, 
	"internals@lists.php.net" <internals@lists.php.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] A different user perspective on scalar type declarations
From: ircmaxell@gmail.com (Anthony Ferrara)

Mike,

One point of clarification:

> This is true, however, the types that you are receiving back form a
> multitude of data sources might be in a mixed format (databases for example
> often provide representation back as a string, non-json based web services
> provide mainly as a string, etc).   While I know what my data looks like
> and I know I am always going to get a "string" integer back I do not want
> to have to type cast this each and every time.  Or that I have a boolean
> integer representation that is in a string... You get the point.   Sure, I
> could certainly go in and take 5 minutes and cast each one but I'm not
> certain why the purpose is there... It specifically changes the
> determination that PHP is a weakly typed language and all of a sudden I now
> need to care that my string integer boolean is not actually a boolean.

It's funny that you bring up boolean...

With the current coercive proposal, you will still need to worry about
the types: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/coercive_sth#coercion_rules

Passing boolean(false) where an integer is expected will generate an
error. This is a common practice, specifically around internal
functions. Example:
https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/phpunit/blob/a4e23a10d4eeea5fd9fe8916859a07430b94cf42/src/Util/ErrorHandler.php#L58

So yes, you'll still need to go in and cast each one **in both RFCs**
(or handle the errors properly).

The difference is with the dual-mode RFC you can choose not to have to
cast and keep everything as-is today (or more specifically, you need
to explicitly choose strict mode). And you can have user-land behave
identically to internals **in both cases**.

Anthony