On 05 November 2003 08:50, Andi Gutmans contributed these pearls of wisdom:
At 12:33 AM 11/5/2003 +0100, Christian Schneider wrote:
I propose to add an alternative (backward compatible) short
array creation syntax: $a = [ 1, 2, 3 ]; and $a = [ 'a' =>
42, 'b' => "foo" ];Personally I don't like having two ways of doing things. It
makes it harder
for people to read scripts.
However, I think the proposed syntax is significantly more
elegant than
today's array() which makes me think twice about the idea and
possibly making an exception to the rule. I think it'll
improve the
look of PHP
scripts. Also I think people calling methods using
call_user_method([$obj,
"method"]); will find it sexier than the array() syntax.
I guess I think it'd be interesting to see what other's think.
I would be greatly in favour of the [] construct. I've used a number of
languages over the years which feature this kind of syntax (a current
example being JavaScript), and always found the array() syntax clumsy by
comparison.
(And, to answer another thread, personally I don't think it's any more
"magic" than the use of [] to access individual array elements -- and the
two are so clearly related that once you know what one does it would be easy
to guess the meaning of the other.)
Cheers!
Mike
Mike Ford, Electronic Information Services Adviser,
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