PHP RFC: Create type-alias with typedef

• Version: 0.0
• Date: 2022-10-13 (use today's date here)
• Author: Olle Haerstedt, Robert Landers
• Status: Draft
• First Published at: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/typedef

TODO

This is a suggested template for PHP Request for Comments (RFCs). Change this template to suit your RFC. Not all RFCs need to be tightly specified. Not all RFCs need all the sections below. Read https://wiki.php.net/rfc/howto carefully!

Quoting Rasmus:

PHP is and should remain:
1) a pragmatic web-focused language
2) a loosely typed language
3) a language which caters to the skill-levels and platforms of a wide range of users

Your RFC should move PHP forward following his vision. As said by Zeev Suraski “Consider only features which have significant traction to a large chunk of our userbase, and not something that could be useful in some extremely specialized edge cases [...] Make sure you think about the full context, the huge audience out there, the consequences of making the learning curve steeper with every new feature, and the scope of the goodness that those new features bring.”

The elevator pitch for the RFC. The first paragraph of this section will be slightly larger to give it emphasis; please write a good introduction.

All the features and examples of the proposal.

To paraphrase Zeev Suraski, explain hows the proposal brings substantial value to be considered for inclusion in one of the world's most popular programming languages.

Remember that the RFC contents should be easily reusable in the PHP Documentation.

If applicable, you may wish to use the language specification as a reference.

What breaks, and what is the justification for it?

List the proposed PHP versions that the feature will be included in. Use relative versions such as “next PHP 8.x” or “next PHP 8.x.y”.

Describe the impact to CLI, Development web server, embedded PHP etc.

Will existing extensions be affected?

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Describe any new constants so they can be accurately and comprehensively explained in the PHP documentation.

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• hardcoded default values
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• php.ini-production values

Make sure there are no open issues when the vote starts!

List existing areas/features of PHP that will not be changed by the RFC.

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This section details areas where the feature might be improved in future, but that are not currently proposed in this RFC.

Include these so readers know where you are heading and can discuss the proposed voting options.

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After the project is implemented, this section should contain

1. the version(s) it was merged into
2. a link to the git commit(s)
3. a link to the PHP manual entry for the feature
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Links to external references, discussions or RFCs

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