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Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2016 23:08:46 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Generalize support of negative string offsets
From: bjorn.x.larsson@telia.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Bj=c3=b6rn_Larsson?=)

Den 2016-02-01 kl. 22:06, skrev Stanislav Malyshev:
> Hi!
> 
>> I strongly disagree with this. $str[$offset] is well-recognized,
>> generally understood syntax that does not require familiarity with
>> language peculiarities. $str{$offset} might be clear to a Perl
>> programmer, but to anyone else this is just guesswork, with a typo being
>> a reasonable assumption.
> 
> The problem is that while it is generally understood, it's generally
> understood wrongly. $str[$offset] is not the same operation as
> $array[$offset]. There are many subtle differences. So while at the
> first sight it's similar, it leads to "understanding" that is only going
> to harm one in the future, when it turns out you really had wrong idea.
> I think it's much better to instill the right idea from the start, even
> if it means one has to take a brief look in the manual. String offset is
> *not* the same as array access.
> 
>> We should be deprecating this alternative syntax instead of recommending
>> its use. I was under the impression that we *were* already discouraging
>> its use and it has already been temporarily deprecated.
> 
> I think deprecating it was a mistake and give how much semantic load []
> carries - array access, array constructor, now there's proposal to make
> it used in deconstructing too - adding string offset to it looks like
> bad idea. Different things should use different syntax, as much as possible.
> 

Yup, you do have a good point here.

Regards //Björn Larsson