Re: [RFC] Type Aliases

> On Dec 3, 2025, at 15:09, Rob Landers <rob@bottled.codes> wrote: > > On Wed, Dec 3, 2025, at 22:04, Paul M. Jones wrote: >> >> >> Hi Rob, >> >> (We've been using a lot of PHPStan type aliasing lately in the Star-Interop work, so >> this topic is timely.) >> >> Is there some possibility of making the aliases more classlike so they can be autoloaded? A >> la: >> >> namespace Foo; >> type number { as int|float; } >> >> Then elsewhere: >> >> use Foo\number; >> function sum(number $a, number $b): number { return $a + $b; } >> >> Let me know if I've missed something fundamental. >> >> >> -- pmj > > > They fundamentally cannot be autoloaded because autoloading happens at runtime, not compile > time. At least, with the current autoloader. Autoloading type aliases would need to have a > fundamentally different type of autoloading that doesn’t exist today. Got it; thanks for the clarification. -- pmj