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Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:16:31 -0700
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To: David Muir <davidkmuir@gmail.com>
CC: Pierre Joye <pierre.php@gmail.com>, 
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Pseudo-objects (methods on arrays, strings, etc.)
From: rasmus@lerdorf.com (Rasmus Lerdorf)

On 07/18/2012 05:10 PM, David Muir wrote:
> On 19/07/12 04:49, Rasmus Lerdorf wrote:
>> On 07/18/2012 01:02 AM, Pierre Joye wrote:
>>> hi,
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 9:35 AM, Stas Malyshev
>>> <smalyshev@sugarcrm.com> wrote:
>>>> Hi!
>>>>
>>>>> See the other answers, clear APIs, no more argument mess, cleanness.
>>>> Cleanness has nothing to do with pseudo-objects.You don't have to use
>>>> -> to have clean APIs, and using -> doesn't automatically make your
>>>> APIs
>>>> clean.
>>> I really do not want to have a semantic discussion here.
>>>
>>> This syntax is sexy, allows us to clean our APIs, and is amazingly
>>> handy.
>> This makes no sense to me either. How does it let us clean the APIs? Can
>> you give an example? I have one:
>>
>> $a = -5;
>> $b = "-5";
>>
>> echo $a->abs();  // Outputs 5
>> echo $b->abs();  // should still output 5
>>
>> What has been cleaned here over:
>>
>> echo abs($a);
>> echo abs($b);
>>
>> other than being 2 characters longer to type? It's not like you can
>> remove abs() from the string pseudo-object, so you are essentially just
>> taking all the functions in the global namespace and attaching them as a
>> method to every pseudo-object. Is that clean?
>>
>> I think there is something we can do around this, but an argument of "it
>> is sexy and clean" needs to be backed up with some actual implementation
>> details that make sense.
>>
>> -Rasmus
>>
> 
> Which is the needle, and which is the haystack?
> $pos = strpos($string, 'a');
> $pos = strpos('a', $string);
> 
> vs
> $pos = $string->pos('a');
> $pos = 'a'->pos($string);
> 
> I'm not proposing to use pos() as the method name, just showing an
> example that this syntax can be cleaner.

Or you could simply remember that it is always haystack,needle for
strings and needle,haystack for arrays. Not that complicated.

-Rasmus