Re: Type hinting

On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 6:32 PM, Lukas Kahwe Smith <mls@pooteeweet.org>wrote: > > On 03.06.2010, at 18:25, Josh Davis wrote: > > > On 1 June 2010 20:43, Stas Malyshev <smalyshev@sugarcrm.com> wrote: > > > >> It is very frequent that you want number and get "1" instead - almost > >> all incoming data for PHP are strings. > > > > I'd like to point out that filter_input() does cast user input to the > > right PHP type. And if memory serves, ext/filter is meant to be PHP's > > standard way of handling user input. So in terms of incoming data, I'd > > consider user input being covered already. > > > > The only other big source of data is the database. Unfortunately, it > > seems that mysqlnd experiments in using MySQL's binary protocol for > > all queries and not just prepared statements [1] didn't materialize. > > But again, the same way filter was one of PHP 5.2's highlights, > > mysqlnd is one of PHP 5.3's highlights and the recommended way to > > communicate with MySQL, which means that if mysqlnd gained that > > ability somewhere down the road then most of incoming data would be > > correctly typed already. Emphasis on "would." > > > Thats all fine and dandy if the ultimate goal is to turn PHP into a > strictly typed language and of course if 90% of the API's you talk to > require strict typing, then the question becomes why even use a dynamic > language to begin with? Why not clean all of that "magic" out, get better > memory management, less overhead in plenty of places, less chances for typos > to result in hard to debug issues. Sure sounds good and I guess there > probably is a market, maybe even an urgent need for a strictly typed > scripting language for the web space. > > But really is PHP the best basis for this? > > regards, > Lukas Kahwe Smith > mls@pooteeweet.org > > > > Sorry, I missed the point when Josh was suggesting to turn PHP into a strictly typed language. I think that you should have noted, that what suggestion/idea are you against it. Converting the variable type to the appropriate one? Or the strict type hinting? Tyrael ps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man Straw man arguments often arise in public debates such as a (hypothetical) prohibition <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition> debate: Person A: *We should liberalise the laws on beer<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer> .*Person B: *No, any society with unrestricted access to intoxicants loses its work ethic and goes only for immediate gratification.* The proposal was to relax laws on beer. Person B has exaggerated this to a position harder to defend, i.e., "unrestricted access to intoxicants".[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man#cite_note-book-0>