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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [PROPOSAL] Alphanumeric decrement
From: rowan.collins@gmail.com (Rowan Collins)

Tjerk Meesters wrote (on 13/12/2013):
> Basically it makes the `$x++` or `++$x` work as if you types `$x += 1` or
> `$x = $x + 1` (except for arrays, currently)
> ++null becomes int(1), --null becomes int(-1)

Yes please! One of my colleagues once raised a bug that currently 
incrementing null results in 1, but decrementing it results in it 
remaining null. On the other hand, `null -= 1` results in -1 as you 
would expect.

The bug was closed as invalid, stating that this is documented 
behaviour, but I have never understood why this would be anything other 
than an accidental side effect of implementation, nor why you would ever 
rely on it.

> ++"123a" becomes "123b" but with a notice that string increment is
> deprecated

Lukewarm on this part; the current syntax seems fairly logical to me, 
and the proposed new functions more ugly for no very good reason.

Regards,
-- 
Rowan Collins
[IMSoP]