[vox-tech] php question - strict variable declarations?

[Peter Jay Salzman]

php is a very forgiving language -- a bit too forgiving.

is there a directive to generate an error if uninitialized variables are
used?

i know there's a concept of declaration for arrays:

   $array = array()

is there a declaration for other data types?  if so, is there a way to
have php force declarations of variables?

i guess i'm looking for an equivalent to perl's "use strict" or
fortran's "implicit none".

pete