PHP RFC: Kill Real
- Version: 1.0
- Date: 2015-10-26
- Author: Kalle Sommer Nielsen kalle@php.net
- Status: Draft
- First Published at: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/kill_real
Introduction
This RFC is about killing the third and uncommon alias 'real' alias for float/doubles.
Proposal
This RFC proposes to remove the 'real' alias that exists for double and floats. PHP supports floating point decimals which always are represented as 'float' when you var_dump() it. However 2 aliases exists to compliment this, these are 'double' and 'real'.
The 'real' alias is often forgotten and very rarely used. An example is that the scalar type hinting available as of PHP 7.0.0, doesn't support 'real' (or 'double' too for the matter).
Backward Incompatible Changes
The '(real)' type cast and the alias function 'is_real()' will be removed.
Proposed PHP Version(s)
Proposed is to deprecate both the type cast and the alias in 7.1, making them emit an E_DEPRECATED notice and remove them in 7.2.
RFC Impact
To SAPIs
None
To Existing Extensions
None
To Opcache
None
Proposed Voting Choices
Proposed voting choices are:
* Remove in 7.1 * Deprecate in 7.1, remove in 7.2 * Keep them
Although this touches the language syntax due to the type cast, I believe this only would require a 50%+1 majority (please correct if this is wrong).
Patches and Tests
A patch will be created once the voting period is over.