Re: RFC: Short syntax for Arrays (redux)

On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 1:01 PM, Pierre Joye <pierre.php@gmail.com> wrote: > I modified the vote page, pls move your votes to the desired syntax > (or global -1) This is a good idea to group things like this. Back on the soapbox. All of this is just to reduce typing "array" (5 characters) before things? Old: $foo = array('a' => 'b', 'c' => 'd'); More than likely new: $foo = ['a' => 'b', 'c' => 'd']; 5 character difference for each array being saved. That's it. At the expense of syntax highlighters, IDEs, books, all becoming outdated and need to be updated. For a language construct that has been around for what, 10 years? Oh, and for anyone desiring a ":" for this new shorthand, why stop at array shorthand. Why not change this from: foreach($foo as $key => $val) To: foreach($foo as $key: $val) That would save one character for each array iteration like that. Also - if we're worried about saving characters and shorthand why not just remove the "$" language construct? That's a LOT of keystrokes. In my WordPress install, that's 75,412 characters saved. Versus 6,960 "array(" matches, which would save 34,800 characters. These were quick examples from a coworker. Just another PHP user who said "wait why would they make another way to express an array?"