To be clear: Although I think this might be implemented as some sort of object I am not interested in making objects out of everything. All I want is this:
function foo(Integer $a, Float $b, String $c, Boolean $d) { } and be able to introspect against that... how that ultimately gets implemented (likely PHP would auto-cast that to an int) doesn't matter to me... but the point here is I think the ability to have more *optional* meta-data associated with function declarations shouldn't be brushed off as nonsense when there are real benefits to the ability. John On Thu, 2005-02-10 at 15:51, John Coggeshall wrote: > > You did't answer my question. Why? > > I am def. a fan of this idea. I'd love to see internally a set of > Java-style objects representing the basic types in PHP. > > As for why I have two reasons: > > Although PHP is not a strongly-typed language and never will be, with > the introduction of type-hinting I feel that having a standard set of > objects representing the fundamental types in PHP will allow developers > of libraries to enforce the proper restrictions if they desire on the > types which end up in their functions. This further degree of control > over the architecture in a PHP class makes an architecture tighter and > easier to manage with growth. > > More importantly than the concept of type-hinting, the lack of typing > information is holding PHP back signifcantly in the realm of Web > Services. Although for PHP applications as a whole typing has proven > itself largely unnecessary, without it making PHP a viable and "simple" > language for the creation of web services isn't feasible. How am I to > create a WSDL document from a class I would like to expose as a web > service? Do you honestly expect me to hand-write a WSDL document for my > object and maintain that WSDL alongside code changes manually? WSDL > documents were designed to be generated automatically by the > architecture exposing the web service, and without any notion of typing > in PHP at all there is no viable way to really do this. > > Also let me point out that I am *not* suggesting that PHP become a typed > language. I am merely am suggesting that the ability for me to enforce > structure on my objects does indeed have a real benefit without breaking > backward compatibility or otherwise compromising the spirit of PHP. > > John -- PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php