trying to do too much with functions?

I have a few functions with way too many parameters in them, or functions which have a non-obvious order of parameters which I constantly have to refer to as I'm working. Since I'm using PHP as my templating language (none smarty here!) as well as the programming language. So I've been looking for some alternatives... My main objectives: 1. have all parameters optional 2. have a mixed order for the paramaters Other languages seem to do this well (Ruby, or perhaps RubyOnRails seems good at it), but in PHP I can only see a few options... I'm hoping someone might offer a few more ideas. <? $params = array('a'=>'123','b'=>'456'); echo doStuff($params); ?> <?=doStuff(array('a'=>'123','b'=>'456'))?> <?=doStuff('a=123','b=456')?> <?=doStuff('a','123','b','456'); ?> <?=doStuff("a='123' b='456'")?> So, is that it? Have I thought of all possible options? --- Justin French http://indent.com.au