Re: [RFC] Context Managers

On Mon, 15 Dec 2025 at 20:01 Ben Ramsey <ben@benramsey.com> wrote: > >> Since the only feedback on what to use for "as" was that => makes sense, >> we have changed the RFC to use => instead. So the new syntax is >> >> using (new CM() => $cVar) { >> // Do stuff here. >> } >> > > Going to be controversial here, but this is confusing, because it operates > in the exact opposite of every other usage of => we have. With associative > arrays, the left is assigned to the expression on the right; with arrow > functions, the return value is the expression on the right; with match, the > expression on the right is returned. > > This is going to be easy to get wrong. > >> > I agree with Matthew. > > I think it makes more sense to reverse them, like this: > > using ($cVar => new CM()) { > // Do stuff here. > } > > I think it’s still clear what this is doing, when reading it. > > Cheers, > Ben > I also agree with Matthew but the reversed proposed here looks very very awkward to me. I think the most natural thing is the “as” but I may have missed the discussion on why it had to be changed. Thinking of foreach ($array as $value), an item from the array (left) is assigned to $value (right). That seems symmetrical to using (new Manager as $manager) where the instance (left) is assigned to the variable (right). Also when using aliases on the top of the file “use Foo as Bar;” as is also assigning the left to the right.