After all this I guess I have to maintain my own PHP branch and hope for PHP6 to address some of my issues. Or switch to another language at some point, because a language to me is a tool, not a religion.
This is exactly the point. Why waste so much energy on deciding how to spell out your array definitions. The decision has been made a long time ago to use the array() syntax. Adding alternatives adds nothing but the ability to save a few key strokes. (Personally, I would have preferred the [] syntax, BTW)
Try/catch however are a fundamental extension to the functionality of the language. Adding these was a good idea in my opinion. Borrowing the syntax from Java/C++ was an obvious choice.
I can't believe you would seriously consider maintaining your own PHP branch, only to be able to use dangling commas and [] array syntax.
-1 on both the array syntax and dangling comma issues.
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Ard