Re: Native decimal scalar support and object types in BcMath - do we want both?

Hi Barney, > There are currently two proposals being discussed - native decimal scalar type support and > Support object type in BCMath > > I've been getting involved in the discussion for the BCMath proposal, but not paying as > much attention to the native decimal thread. > > But these seem like very similar things, so I'm wondering whether or not it makes sense to > do both at once. They both seem like ways to represent and calculate with arbitrary precision > decimal numbers. > > I'm not sure if they have distinct use cases. Are there some tasks where people would > likely prefer one, and different tasks where they would prefer the other? Or should PHP internals > choose just one of these options instead of potentially releasing both? It doesn't seem like a > good idea to have two directly competing features for the same use case in one PHP release, unless > there's a reason to favor each one in a different situation. > (I'm the proposer on the BCMath thread, so my opinion may be a bit biased.) The "areas" being discussed are certainly close. However, I believe that the goals of the proposals and the time and effort required to realize them will vary greatly. Regards. Saki