On Mar 20, 2015, at 16:27, Alex Bowers <bowersb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 20 March 2015 at 20:10, Sean Coates <s...@seancoates.com> wrote:
>
>> That’s no different than `@` being invalid because it’s already in use.
>
>
> The syntax would be [*from:to], which would currently throw a parse error
> (since asterisk is required to be placed between two numbers), so this
> would be different.
>
> Alternatively, an underscore could be used
>
> This would then look like [_from:to]
>
> Also, another option would be to not use the square bracket syntax at all,
> and move towards angled brackets for positional indexing.
>
> This would then be $array<1:2> to get items in positions 1 and 2.
$array<1:2> could be confusing to parse (if not confusing to read) because of
ambiguity with the existing < and > operators. For example:
$foo ? $bar<1:2> 3
is currently valid syntax, and means
$foo ? ($bar < 1) : (2 > 3)
So there is probably some complex nesting of ?: and <:> that is entirely
ambiguous.
Not necessarily saying it can’t be done, but I think we should probably avoid
syntax with a significant chance of causing mental parse errors.
-John
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