RE: [PHP-DEV] Re: RFC: Short syntax for Arrays (redux)

> -----Original Message----- > From: ekneuss@gmail.com [mailto:ekneuss@gmail.com] On Behalf Of > Etienne Kneuss > Sent: 01 June 2011 01:57 > To: internals@lists.php.net > Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Re: RFC: Short syntax for Arrays (redux) > > +1 for a short array syntax. > > But only if you keep it consistent, PHP has always been using => for > key/val association, I don't see any reason to suddenly provide > "key": > "val", unless what you want is to confuse people. Hear, hear and hear, hear to that! ['a': 'b'] just feels completely un-PHP-like, and I'd be totally against it. If the desire is to have a "native" JSON syntax so that you can eval() imported JSON, then I'm completely anti that, too -- that's a case where I'd far rather be explicit and use json_decode(). And since, no matter how you slice it, you're never going to get a complete fit between native PHP structures and JSON encoding, I don't believe you should even try. I just can't see the problem with saying: PHP arrays (and maybe objects?) look like *this*, and if you want to import/export them from/to a JSON representation, there are functions to do it like *this*. This seems to be the perfectly sensible approach of other languages I've used recently (although my perl is somewhat out-of-date, and my python even more out-of-daterer and minimal at that!). Even ECMAScript is going down the route of explicit conversion with JSON.parse() and JSON.stringify() in ECMAScript 5! All in all, still +1 for [1, 2=>2, 'a'=>'b'], and -several million (for style) for any syntax involving colons. Cheers! Mike -- Mike Ford, Electronic Information Developer, Libraries and Learning Innovation, Leeds Metropolitan University, C507 City Campus, Portland Way, LEEDS,  LS1 3HE,  United Kingdom E: m.ford@leedsmet.ac.uk T: +44 113 812 4730 To view the terms under which this email is distributed, please go to http://disclaimer.leedsmet.ac.uk/email.htm