Casting in list()

I just run over this a few times lately (it is a bit indirect because of not having much logic in the overall syntax, but probably not that bad), for PHPs list() construct I think it would be nice being able to cast the assignments on the fly:     list((string) $name) = array(new SplFileInfo(__FILE__)); (yes this example is not very creative but should be enough for a brief illustration). Would this be possible? I know some folks do not like list, but on the other hand, things like these don't work in PHP:     $name = (string) ($array ? : [new SplFileInfo(__FILE__)])[0] and having casting list list() can be handy then. Is this hard to add to core PHP? -- hakre