Before I create an RFC or attempt a reference implementation, is there any interest in adding (and then obviously supporting in perpetuity) a list type?
The first line of PHP's documentation for "array" states: "An array in PHP is actually an ordered map". There are some optimisations that make arrays with ordered integer keys faster, but I'd be interested in a separate type dedicated to *sequential* integer keys. Such a type would presumably consume a little less memory. Why "list" and not "vec" or similar? "list" is also a reserved word – I'm imagining that you'd construct a list like $l = list["a", "b", "c"]; I imagine such a "list" type would be a subtype of "array" – everywhere that array was accepted, a list would be also, and it would have the same copy-on-write behaviour. If people are interested in having that type, there's a question of what to do with $some_list["a"] = 5; Would you convert the $some_list to an array, or throw an exception? Converting to an array would seem the more PHP-like thing to do. Similarly, the behaviour of $some_list[$key_out_of_current_range] = 5 would be a matter of debate too – would that turn $some_list into an array, or would it fill up any preceding entries in the array with null? What other questions are there? Is a "list" type even a good fit for PHP, given most of its users seem pretty content with the current swiss-army-knife array type? Best wishes, Matt
