On Mon, Jun 15, 2026, at 11:20 PM, Hendrik Mennen wrote: > 1. The friction is real and a small targeted addition is worth > shipping. (what the RFC proposes) > 2. The friction is real but the mechanism is wrong. (in which case: > what signal would you prefer? per-file declare, magic first line, > SAPI-only, ...) > 3. The friction is not real, or not worth a language change at all.
I also am in camp 3. I basically never type <?php myself. My IDE does it for me when I create a file. This is a non-issue, and the proposed solution, as others have explained, has many issues and gotchas. One useful part of Alex's module proposal was a file type that had stricter rules about what it could do; basically it had to follow PSR-1. I think there could be potential in that concept, but it wouldn't be triggered by a different file name; it would be triggered by, say, <?phpo (PHP Only), or some other prefix that indicates the whole file must be code, no ?> allowed, cannot have top-level output or code, etc. The idea needs some development, but I could see that having use in a way that doesn't break BC. But pivoting off the file name is a non-starter. --Larry Garfield
