For most of its life, PHP has been a “weakly” typed language: values can freely shift from one state to another, and mould themselves to what an operation requires; or, in the case of objects, largely duck-typed: you don’t need a formal contract to call a method. There is, however, a trend in the language to adopt stronger typing constraints, first in function parameters, and now elsewhere in the language. As with so much in PHP, this is being done piecemeal, and without a clear road map. This is partly deliberate: a gentle introduction of optional features is less disruptive; but it is dangerous: compromises made now will shape the language for years to come.
I think it is time to grasp the nettle and say that there is a definite policy of introducing a new typing model to PHP, and a roadmap of what that means for the language. The implementation may still be incremental, but each change will be a step in a consistent direction. This post is my musings on what such a model might look like.