On Fri, 2008-01-04 at 12:41 -0500, Sam Barrow wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-01-04 at 12:37 -0500, Robert Cummings wrote:
> > On Fri, 2008-01-04 at 18:23 +0100, Pierre wrote:
> > > On Jan 4, 2008 6:20 PM, Marcus Boerger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > > Hello Pierre,
> > > >
> > > >   we never accepted this as a pro argument. Infact we often saw the
> > > > necessaity to highlight something is optional to vote against it. We do 
> > > > this
> > > > for a reason. That is we only want to support mainstream features.
> > > 
> > > My point of view is that this feature should be a mainstream feature.
> > > To make it optional was to lower the issues for those who don't care
> > > about argument strictness. We did not give them this choice for the OO
> > > strictness.
> > 
> > IMHO, optionally inclusion of type hinting for functions/methods can
> > only be a boon to code quality and readability. IMHO when a type hint is
> > provided and a parameter doesn't match the type hint then I think a
> > fatal error should occur. This forces the user of the function that has
> > type hinting to ensure their data is of the correct type. This prevents
> > accidental wrong data conversion. However, I see the other side of the
> > coin too where automatic type conversion could be desirable also.
> > Perhaps a mixed solution would be viable?
> > 
> 
> I don't think conversion would make sense here, as PHP will
> automatically convert the variable before you use it anyway. Hinting
> will prevent mistakes, conversion will just try to ignore them, which is
> what PHP does already.

I think that depends on what I do with the variable. PHP doesn't know
how I intend to use it, and if I know I want an int and I don't want to
test for browserland garbage in my variable everytime the function is
called, then an automatic type conversion to int for my function can
make perfect sense. Yes, I could force the developer using my function
to cast the parameter as an int, but I'm certain conversion in the
engine without a userland cast is faster, and it makes it more
convenient to the consumer of my function since they can still treat it
like a classic function.

Cheers,
Rob.
-- 
...........................................................
SwarmBuy.com - http://www.swarmbuy.com

    Leveraging the buying power of the masses!
...........................................................

-- 
PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List
To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php

Reply via email to