Re: [RFC][Discussion] Add MariaDB-specific features to mysqlnd and mysqli

> Despite your convincing arguments for better network utilization by > providing the types, I still think we should not offer the possibility > of specifying the types. I don't know what other PHP developers on > this mailing list think about it, but for me the type feature goes > against the nature of PHP. Making the parameter optional is very good > choice and eases my concerns slightly, so if I am outnumbered in my > opinion, I won't be upset. > The number of mysqli users grows increasingly smaller. Out of this, > the number of people who will use execute_many and who will need to > optimize for TINYINT is unbelievably tiny. Any string easily > overshadows the numerical data. Thus, this feature won't see much > legitimate use. I think the risk here is that currently the types parameter is supported in existing code (via bind_param); and it is not deprecated / no warnings exist on its usage in the manual. I think having the parameter in new code be optional was a sensible change; but until mysqli_stmt::bind_param is deprecated or the types parameter is removed there; allowing users to specify the types in new functions where there is a benefit to doing so (even if only a small number of people will use the benefit) makes sense to do unless there are technical or other reasons not to. If setting types for a prepared statement shouldn't be done in PHP, then where that currently can be done should be deprecated and in the future removed.