The Php Times

Seifeddine Gmati announced the opening of voting on the Literal Scalar Types RFC on July 23, 2026, but withdrew it within an hour due to violations of the PHP Feature Proposals policy.

The RFC proposes three concurrent votes. The primary vote requires a 2/3 majority to add integer and string literal types. A second independent vote, also requiring 2/3 majority, addresses floating point literal types; the RFC passes if at least one type vote succeeds. A third vote, requiring simple majority and conditional on at least one type vote passing, determines matching semantics between strict and coercive approaches, with strict matching recommended.

Gmati retracted the vote because he did not post the mandatory Intent to Vote message at least two days in advance, and the RFC received a minor 1.0 text update that same day, triggering a seven-day Cooldown Period during which voting is prohibited. Per policy, he will repost an Intent to Vote and reopen voting on or after July 30.

The timing constraint is tight: a fourteen-day vote opened July 30 closes August 13, coinciding with PHP 8.6's feature freeze. Beta1 releases August 11, meaning any merge would occur during the beta phase. Gmati will coordinate with PHP 8.6 Release Managers to determine if inclusion remains feasible; if not, the RFC will be retargeted to PHP 8.7 before the reopened vote.