[rfc] normalize increment and decrement operators

Following the earlier discussion of adding decrement for strings to
complement the existing alphanumeric increment feature, I've written a
proposal to normalize the behaviour across boolean and null values.

https://wiki.php.net/rfc/normalize_inc_dec

Based on some earlier comments, boolean and null values can be treated in
two distinct way, both of which are demonstrated in the rfc; I'm hoping
that before voting takes place we can eliminate one voting option
altogether.

It also aims to deprecate string-based increments using ++; instead, it
would introduce str_inc() and str_dec() as a regular function.

Let me know your thoughts.

I actually already wrote a patch for removing alphanumeric increment and
decrement, if you're interested:
https://github.com/TazeTSchnitzel/php-src/tree/AlphanumericIncrement

Personally, I think the sanest solution is to increment number-looking
strings as if they were numbers ("0" becomes 1), increment numbers
(obviously), and throw a warning and do nothing for everything else.

Though it would be best if the $a++ behaviour matches $a += 1 and $a =
$a + 1. So, while I'd prefer the strict approach I just mentioned, we
should actually make it function identically to the other ways of
incrementing.

--
Andrea Faulds
http://ajf.me/