Re: Cascade Operator (was Re: [PHP-DEV] Proposal for php7 class method return)

On 12/07/2016 00:14, Jesse Schalken wrote:

If so, some consideration should be made as to which syntax is preferred to solve this problem generally for both setting properties and calling methods. I prefer the "obj { .. }" syntax because it mirrors object literals in JSON/JavaScript, object initializers in C# and C/C++ and Haskell record syntax, is particularly concise when nested to create large trees of objects, and avoids the noise of "->>" on each line.

All the examples you've given for that syntax are for initialisation, and I'm not sure how readable it would be for the general "do several things in a row" case: $counter { count(), count(), count(), count() } Thinking about it, this becomes something more like a "with" keyword: with ( $counter ) { count(); count(); count(); count(); } If with(){} could be used as an expression, you'd get something remarkably close to your initialiser example: $this->setBlah(

    with ( Blah::create(4) ) {
            foo = $foo;
            baz = with ( new Baz() ) {
                markFixed();
                label = "Hello";
            };
            setBot(9);
    }

); I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not - with() statements exist in a few languages, with varying degrees of acceptance. I don't remember seeing one used as an expression like that before, though. There's a definite awkwardness of what to put on the left side of property assignments too... with ( new Foo ) { var = 1 } with ( new Foo ) { $var = 1 } with ( new Foo ) { ->var = 1 } Overall, it's an interesting idea, but the details are fiddly, and the gains marginal, IMO. Regards, -- Rowan Collins [IMSoP]