Re: Proposal: A way for classes to define a response to any primitive type cast

> On Jul 6, 2020, at 11:54 AM, Marco Pivetta <ocramius@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hey Josh, > > Similar proposals were raised recently for __toArray(): see > https://externals.io/message/108369#108369 > > I'd endorse avoiding object-to-<scalar> casts via cast operations: they are > a good source of bugs. > My rationale for the discouragement of magic cast methods is explained with > some code examples at > > https://github.com/ShittySoft/symfony-live-berlin-2018-doctrine-tutorial/pull/3#issuecomment-460441229 > > Greets, > > Marco Pivetta > > http://twitter.com/Ocramius > > http://ocramius.github.com/ > > > On Mon, Jul 6, 2020 at 4:17 PM Josh Bruce <josh@joshbruce.dev> wrote: > >> Apologies, first time, still learning and have no historical context - >> timing is what it is. >> >> Proposal type: Concept >> >> Implementer: Unknown, fallback to me after slow learning >> >> Presumed simple implementation as the pattern should already be in place: >> >> Cast of (string) -> __toString() - already implemented >> >> Cast of (bool) -> __toBool() >> >> Cast of (int) -> __toInt() >> >> Cast of (object) -> __toObject() >> >> …and so on. >> >> Alternative implementation using an interface: >> >> \CastableTo{type} >> >> Extreme implementation: >> >> Make both of the previous available. >> >> Known unknowns: >> >> - Level of interest in something like this in the PHP community outside of >> one upvote on a Stackoverflow question I submitted: >> >> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62747837/php-7-tostring-or-other-interface-for-boolean-values >> < >> >> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62747837/php-7-tostring-or-other-interface-for-boolean-values >>> >> - Whether this conversation or proposal has already occurred. >> - The historical conversation leading to the creation of the __toString() >> method (and stopping there). >> - The current conversation around using magic methods in general and >> specifically when defining a cast response. >> - Enough details on PHP internal development to implement myself (this is >> the first time in 20 years I felt I couldn’t comfortably accomplish what I >> wanted to, thanks for that). >> - What potential collisions could occur if someone (me) wanted to >> implement all possibilities in a single class. >> - Right now __toBool() would be of the most personal benefit - if proposal >> is converted to an RFC, would it be better (faster/smoother) to do one RFC >> for all the cast possibilities - or to have an RFC for each cast separately? >> >> Thank you for the consideration, information, and feedback. >> >> Cheers, >> Josh >> >> ps. Also, apologies again for walking into a new space on a mission, not >> my normal approach. >> >> pps. The primary project inspiring the proposal: >> https://github.com/8fold/php-shoop >> <https://github.com/8fold/php-shoop> >> >> >> Thank you for the reply Marco. Decided to put something together: https://github.com/joshbruce/external-project-proposals/blob/master/php-concepts/interact-with-instance-as-php.md <https://github.com/joshbruce/external-project-proposals/blob/master/php-concepts/interact-with-instance-as-php.md> I really appreciated the links to and conversations on __toArray. I hope I adequately incorporated and differentiated the desired outcome (interact as if PHP primitive) instead of focusing on the implementation (cast). Also, just to make sure I caught what you were saying: You recommend avoiding making thing “cast-able” - but ardently necessarily opposed to other means. Cheers, Josh