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Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2026 19:25:17 +0100
To: Larry Garfield <larry@garfieldtech.com>
Cc: php internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Pattern Matching
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From: tim@bastelstu.be (=?UTF-8?Q?Tim_D=C3=BCsterhus?=)

Hi

Am 2026-01-23 20:48, schrieb Larry Garfield:
> The idea of the second being that, if you want just an identity match, 
> you can skip adding `is` on just that one arm.

I don't understand what that is trying to say.

> 2. Positional array patterns.  How picky should the pattern matching be 
> for list-esque arrays?  There's 3 options listed in the RFC as possible 
> ways forward, so I won't repeat them here but just provide a link:
> 
> https://wiki.php.net/rfc/pattern-matching#positional_array_enforcement

I expect "list patterns" to be reasonably short, such that 
`array_is_list()` would effectively be constant-time after checking 
whether the number of elements matches up. As such I would prefer (1) 
"Include the list check, accept the cost".

> `$o is object(x: 1)`

That would be okay, but no strong feelings.

> 4. The variable pinning syntax.  There's been some concerns about it 
> being non-obvious, which is valid.  The main argument for it is "it's 
> what Ruby does", which is not the most compelling argument, but it's 
> not invalid.
> 
> Is there some other syntax that would work better?  Ilija has pondered 
> `{$x}`, which would then potentially allow simple expressions inside 
> the pattern within the {}.  I am a little scared of the scope creep 
> potential. :-)  But we're open to having this discussion, so please 
> discuss.

As I think I said before, I don't need variable pinning at all, but `^` 
in particular is terrible. `{}` would be okay, but I prefer just not 
making a decision for now.

Best regards
Tim Düsterhus