PHP 8 changes – my first impressions
PHP 8 in out since 26 Nov 2020.
I took a look at the change log and here is what I like and don’t like. Most of them are great changes.
1. Named arguments
This is nice. I think I’ve seen this in Kotlin before.
2. Annotations
This is excellent.
The fact that PHP didn’t have native annotation was one of the main reasons I preferred java.
Remains to be seen if it’s just as useful as it is in java or if it has some drawbacks.
I preferred the @ notation but I guess there were some constrains that prevented that.
Maybe the error suppression in PHP suing the same symbol.
3. Constructor helper
This looks useful. I think I’ve seen it in Typescript before.
4. Union types
I think I prefer just one type per variable.
5. Match expression
I hate this. From what I understand it’s also in Rust.
6. Nullsafe operator
I love this one.
7. Saner string to number comparison
Haha, about time.
8. Trailing comma in parameter lists
Very nice. It will improve PHP developers mental sanity. I hate errors about that comma.