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Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2020 14:45:21 +0100
Message-ID: <CALKiJKq=GD661ZD0zRsn15a_GdsFhADghD7ScVK=ifaZudX9qw@mail.gmail.com>
To: PHP Developers Mailing List <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [VOTE] Shorter Attribute Syntax Change
From: rowan.collins@gmail.com (Rowan Tommins)

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On Tue, 11 Aug 2020 at 14:15, Peter Bowyer <phpmailinglists@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Anyone?
>
> Why is the discussion fixated on [] rather than ()?
>


Elsewhere, Derick clarified that he sees a "conceptual/logical" difference
between brackets around just the argument list and the brackets around the
whole expression, rather than anything concrete to do with parsing.

I suspect this is a mental bias because we're used to pairing off ( and )
or [ and ]. If we imagine a straw man syntax with no brackets of any sort:

~~AttributeName:param1,param2!

I think everyone would agree that the "!" here ended the attribute
declaration, not just the parameter list. But looking closely, that's a
one-to-one substitution from @@ with mandatory parens:

~~ <name> : <argument-list> !
@@ <name> ( <argument-list> )


That doesn't mean it's wrong to say there's a different feeling between the
two, but does highlight that like every other factor discussed, this is
basically a subjective feeling, rather than anything substantial.


Regards,
-- 
Rowan Tommins
[IMSoP]

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