Hi Juliette, I'm happy to work on the C code, and have added this as an entry to the 8.7 deprecations RFC at https://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecations_php_8_7#deprecate_the_b_prefix_for_binary_strings. If you have edit access and want to add the reasoning, please feel free - I didn't copy from your original message because the wiki is licensed under the "CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International" license and I can't agree to that for text that I didn't write. If you can't or don't want to update the RFC page, I'll expand on the reasoning at some point between now and when that RFC is officially under discussion next year.
-Daniel On Mon, Oct 5, 2026 at 2:39 PM Juliette Reinders Folmer < [email protected]> wrote: > On 25-9-2026 13:32, Juliette Reinders Folmer wrote: > > All, > > The `b` string prefix and the `(binary)` cast were both introduced in PHP > 5.2.1 for forward compatibility with PHP 6. > > In 2016, there was an RFC [1] targeting PHP 7.x to deprecate both, which > was declined. > > Since then, the `(binary)` type cast has now been deprecated in PHP 8.5.0 > [2], but as far as I can see, the `b`-prefix for strings is still supported. > > I can't remember ever coming across this in the wild, so I wonder if it > might be a good idea to deprecate the `b`-prefix now as well. > > I'll happily create an RFC for this if the you all think it's a good idea. > > Opinions ? > > Smile, > Juliette > > > 1: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/binary_string_deprecation > 2: > https://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecations_php_8_5#deprecate_non-standard_cast_names > > > Just in case you missed it in the avalanche of proposals being discussed > on the list at this moment. > > So far, this suggestion has had one response, which is not enough to make > it worth the effort for me to write an RFC and find someone to collaborate > with for the C-code. > > Unless there are more people who respond to indicate interest in this > proposal, I will not pursue it. > > Smile, > Juliette > >
