[marrs]

This is the point that ars is making. He is saying that it has to be a runtime check and/or conversion because it is coming over the wire, as a string, at runtime.

So the question he is asking is, if you have to do the check at runtime anyway, what is the benefit of the type hinting? Isn't it just belt and braces?

It seems like a perfectly legitimate question to me.

And by the way, to those downvoters who don't seem to be able to tell the difference between a comment you disagree with and spam, can you please contribute to the conversation by hitting the reply button or alternatively get lost? Only you're ruining it for the rest of us. Thanks