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Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 17:01:21 -0000 
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Subject: RE: [PHP-DEV] Proposal: Array syntax
From: M.Ford@lmu.ac.uk ("Ford, Mike               [LSS]")

On 05 November 2003 16:48, Ilia Alshanetsky contributed these pearls of
wisdom:

> I mean c'mon, is 5 characters that much of a problem and is
> absolute code clarity not worth those 5 characters? Character
> efficiency is done in Perl, where you can do things like ~=
> and @_, but that makes Perl code naturally obfuscated and I do
> not think that's a good way to go. 

I don't think the number of characters is the main issue here -- it's about
having a *nicer* set of characters.  Personally, I'd be still be in favour
(although not quite as much) if the proposed syntax were [[[1,2,3]]] -- for
me, it's about having a syntax that shouts *ARRAY* rather than whispers it.
(Although the reduction in characters is handy -- particularly in a
construct like ['foo' => ['bar'=>'on', 'baz'=>[2,3,5,7]],
'bedrock'=>['rubble'=>['barney', 'betty'], 'flintstone'=>['fred',
'wilma']]].)

Cheers!

Mike

-- 
Mike Ford,  Electronic Information Services Adviser,
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