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Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 22:28:05 +0200
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Introducing "Array Of" RFC
From: narf@devilix.net (Andrey Andreev)

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Okay, so <Bar> for contents and [Bar] for keys, although AFAIK you can't
use objects as array keys.
These were all random thoughts, I haven't though about it all in depth.
Still, I believe it's more intuitive than both previous proposals.


On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 10:20 PM, Andrea Faulds <ajf@ajf.me> wrote:

>
>
> On 16/01/14 20:14, Andrey Andreev wrote:
>
>> Am I the only one who finds both proposed syntaxes somewhat confusing?
>>
>> The originally proposed 'Bar[]' simply looks strange.
>>
>
> It is, however, familiar to C, C++, C# and Java users.
>
>
>  So, how about this:
>>
>>    Array[Bar] $a - $a is array containing only instances of Bar
>>    Array[Bar|null] $a - $a is array containing Bar instances or nulls
>>    Array[Bar] $a = null - $a is either null or array containing only
>> instances of Bar
>>    Array[Bar|null] $a = null - above, but the array can contain nulls
>>
>
> That doesn't make much sense as a syntax, IMO. It looks like "Bar" is the
> index of the Array here. Surely it could use angle brackets, which would be
> familiar to people who've dealt with generics (C++, C#, Java users):
>
>      Array<Bar> $a
>
>
>  It's easily readable and everybody should be able to recognize what this
>> thing does even without prior knowledge.
>>
>
> It's not clear to me at all at first glance. Is that a Bar-indexed array?
>
>
>  Or even (at a later stage):
>>
>>    Array[]["key1", "key2"]
>>
>> ... which would hint for a numeric index array containing associative
>> arrays that in turn must have the defined keys. This is indeed a bit
>> crazy,
>> but possible to add in the future without BC breaks. You could even shove
>> scalar typehints in there as soon as they are implemented.
>>
>
> ...that's even less intuitive to me.
> --
> Andrea Faulds
> http://ajf.me/
>

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