syntax for two comparison operators

General question, Is there a technical reason why PHP does not allow comparison operator expressions like the following: if (2 < $x <= 4) {} I prefer this concise way as it is common for mathematics expressions, and much easier to grasp physically on first glance. From what I can tell, this expression can currently only be written as: if ( $x > 2 && $x <= 4) {} Would adding this syntax to PHP be incredibly difficult or lead to performance slowdowns? I think I remember reading that PHP always evaluates expressions from right to left, so I guess there may be a considerable codebase change required. Maybe there could be a default function workaround for this or some other way to automagically process these more concise expressions without too much of a slowdown?? Just curious. Jordan