Greetings,
I have been playing around with an RFC proposal for some time and recently after discussing it with Tim Düsterhus he has volunteered
to do the implementation so I would like to submit to you an RFC around data encoding in PHP. The goal of the RFC is to fully implement
RFC4648 (base16 , base32, base64).
I know that PHP already has base64_encode and base64_decode and bih2hex and hex2bin but those functions only provide a partial support for RFC4648.
In my RFC proposal I would like to introduce, instead, a new namespace Encoding that will host an all new and improved API which will cover the complete RFC,
will be consistent and easily extendable for future data encoding algorithms addition.
For reference, this is not a new topic, the issue with the current implementation is well documented in the mailing list as well as a past attempt to
add RFC4648 to the language.
If people are interested I will proceed with a karma request and create the draft RFC.
Best regards,
Ignace Nyamagana Butera
On Thu, 12 Jun 2025 at 18:53, ignace nyamagana butera
<nyamsprod@gmail.com> wrote:
Greetings,
I have been playing around with an RFC proposal for some time and recently after discussing it with Tim Düsterhus he has volunteered
to do the implementation so I would like to submit to you an RFC around data encoding in PHP. The goal of the RFC is to fully implement
RFC4648 (base16 , base32, base64).
I know that PHP already has `base64_encode` and `base64_decode` and `bih2hex` and `hex2bin` but those functions only provide a partial support for RFC4648.
In my RFC proposal I would like to introduce, instead, a new namespace `Encoding` that will host an all new and improved API which will cover the complete RFC,
will be consistent and easily extendable for future data encoding algorithms addition.
For reference, this is not a new topic, the issue with the current implementation is well documented in the mailing list as well as a past attempt to
add RFC4648 to the language.
- base64_encode without padding base64_encode without padding - Externals
- base64 url format base64url format - Externals
- [RFC] RFC4648 encoding [RFC] RFC4648 encoding - Externals
If people are interested I will proceed with a karma request and create the draft RFC.
Best regards,
Ignace Nyamagana Butera
Why do it in core?
Is userland base16/base32 performance unsatisfactory?
Why do it in core?
Is userland base16/base32 performance unsatisfactory?
Even if the performance is satisfactory, having this in core can help
user-land code to get rid of their own implementations (which they
often do, to be URL-safe, for example).
I imagine native implementations can make use of CPU SIMD acceleration
as well, like we already do for the current base64 functions.
The initial message also mentions adding this functionality into a
separate namespace, so I'm quite positive with this proposal. Even
more so than the previous proposals that proposed to add new
parameters to the base64 functions.
On Thu, Jun 12, 2025 at 7:23 PM Hans Henrik Bergan <divinity76@gmail.com> wrote:
On Thu, 12 Jun 2025 at 18:53, ignace nyamagana butera
<nyamsprod@gmail.com> wrote:
Greetings,
I have been playing around with an RFC proposal for some time and recently after discussing it with Tim Düsterhus he has volunteered
to do the implementation so I would like to submit to you an RFC around data encoding in PHP. The goal of the RFC is to fully implement
RFC4648 (base16 , base32, base64).
I know that PHP already has base64_encode and base64_decode and bih2hex and hex2bin but those functions only provide a partial support for RFC4648.
In my RFC proposal I would like to introduce, instead, a new namespace Encoding that will host an all new and improved API which will cover the complete RFC,
will be consistent and easily extendable for future data encoding algorithms addition.
For reference, this is not a new topic, the issue with the current implementation is well documented in the mailing list as well as a past attempt to
add RFC4648 to the language.
If people are interested I will proceed with a karma request and create the draft RFC.
Best regards,
Ignace Nyamagana Butera
Why do it in core?
Is userland base16/base32 performance unsatisfactory?
Hi Hans,
If I take base32 as an example, if you look at packagist for userland implementations packages, you will get different results with none telling you which version (alphabet) is being used
and if the decoding is strict or not.. The same is true for base64, there are different flavours of base64 with each their usefulness. The RFC will address these issues and provide a consistent API to tackle them.
Best regards,
Ignace Nyamagana Butera
Hi Ignace,
I fully support the idea, and I also share the opinion that PHP should evolve by improving its standard library
from the mostly procedural APIs consisting of functions here and there to “cleaner”, more organized and consistent
object oriented APIs. I also agree that performance sensitive topics that are backed by standards are a perfect fit for adoption.
So good luck with the RFC!
Regards,
Máté