Re: [RFC] Scalar Type Hints

On 01/01/2015 10:35 AM, Andrea Faulds wrote:

Now, going on step back here (talking about me), I'm speaking up because

my< needs are developer are different (mostly speaking about backend

code, interfaces, libraries, frameworks) but OTOH I'm not a big known open source framework developer either ;) I would honestly be interested what the big framework/library players actually want/need; do they prefer this implicit scalar type conversion system or rather have a rigid system like the current object types but for scalars too? I think decision on this RFC should include also "their" saying too. It's complex because we can't force anyone to participate but I think above all these are the most important audience here because they know what they want and they know what their users want. I say this because usage of object types in PHP is almost non-existent (or, there are just too few cases) compared to the architecture of some of the framework/library systems out there.

That’s a fair point. I’m not sure how they feel about it. Their views aren’t necessarily the most important, though. Frameworks can do whatever they like, but what ultimately matters is what’s best for the end users, who don’t deal with the framework internals. Thanks. -- Andrea Faulds http://ajf.me/

The "end users" of php-src are "people who write PHP code". Those are the end users that we should be concerned with. "People who visit web sites" are *their* end users. Those people don't care in the slightest what happens on this list; they care that the people writing PHP code can do their job in a minimum amount of time and with a minimum amount of bugs. So asking developers of the major PHP frameworks and applications what would help them do their job in a minimum amount of time with a minimum amount of bugs is absolutely a worthwhile endeavor to figure out what would be "best". "User research" in this case, means talking to the lead developers of Zend Framework, Symfony, Drupal, Wordpress, phpBB, and so on. I'd be happy to make introduction for you on the FIG mailing list, which is the best collection of such people I know of. --Larry Garfield