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Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:34:11 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [PROPOSAL] Bare name array literals (again)
From: rowan.collins@gmail.com (Rowan Tommins)

On 21/06/2021 17:54, tyson andre wrote:
> In every place where `key` is a valid php identifier
> (e.g. can be used in PHP 8.0's named parameters),
> I propose to allow `[key: expr]` to be used instead of `['key' => expr]`.


This is an immediate "no" from me: it multiplies the ways to write the 
same thing from 2 to 4, in order to save a few bytes, in a few instances.

I think this is something that Douglas Crockford got absolutely right 
when he simplified JavaScript object syntax to formalise JSON: every 
valid key can be represented as a quoted string, so if the quotes are 
always there, you don't need to remember a list of rules about reserved 
words, allowed characters, etc.


> This is useful for shortening long arrays where the keys are known literals,
> e.g.
>
> ```php
> return [success: true, data: $data, cursor: $cursor];
> // is equivalent to the following, but shorter:
> return ['success' => true, 'data' => $data, 'cursor' => $cursor];
> ```


Although common, this is not a good use of arrays; if your keys are 
"known literals", they should be fields of some object:

return new Result(success: true, data: $data, cursor: $cursor);


If you don't want to declare a class (yet), you can use an anonymous 
object. Rather than yet another way to write arrays, it would be great 
to have some more powerful syntax for those; currently you'd have 
something like this:

return new class(success: true, data: $data, cursor: $cursor) { public 
function __construct(public bool $success, public array $data, public 
CursorInterface $cursor) {} };


Brainstorming, we could perhaps extend property promotion into the "new 
class" clause, so that you could write this:

return new class(public bool success: true, public array data: $data, 
public CursorInterface cursor: $cursor) {};


Regards,

-- 
Rowan Tommins
[IMSoP]