Re: Fix ReflectionType::__toString() BC break

On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 2:55 AM, Nicolas Grekas <nicolas.grekas@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello, > > our turn to be hit by this 7.1 BC break in Symfony: > ReflectionType::__toString() now adds a > ? in front of type hints where > null is allowed by their default values. > > But since zend_bool is really an unsigned > char, we have plenty of room > to store and forward this semantic subtlety (nullable being set through > ?Foo $arg vs Foo $arg = null) > so that ReflectionType::__toString() > can be accurate again, thus BC. > > See https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/2136 > > Thank for you consideration of this patch. > > Cheers, > Nicolas On a technical note this is a potentially breaking change for C extensions. Since it is a currently a zend_bool its value is truthy/falsy; you are now applying specific meaning to values. Maybe someone else will have more insight into what might be affected realistically, but this is one reason this was not implemented this way to begin with.