Re: Re: Binary string forward compatibility removal

Hi, Joe Watkins wrote:

Morning Andrea,

     Who is widely deploying something that does absolutely nothing ?

PHAR uses (binary), or so Pedro's email says.

     The only reason to keep it would be that we are going to change the

default representation, as pointed out we're not.

If we were adding it tomorrow, maybe, but b and the (binary) cast are already here. A high standard must be met for removing features. These aren't a security problem, nor a maintenance burden. There's not a good case for removing them and breaking backwards-compatibility

     This cannot have been left in for considered reasons, it was just

forgotten about.

If it was to be removed, the time to do so would have been right after PHP 6's failure. But it's been years now. I'm unconvinced there's a strong case to remove it. Thanks for your reply. -- Andrea Faulds https://ajf.me/