How can you *need* this, you can use substr() just fine.
Almost no peace of functionality in PHP in unique, some extensions duplicate core/standard functionality and vice versa. Usually the "core" offers a simpler access to a resource and full pledged extensions gives the full capabilities. The best example of this is streams, sockets extension and cURL.
On a similar note, most users don't use even 1/2 the functionality PHP offers, does it mean we should remove those parts of the language or not have add them in the 1st place?
Just because substr() or $a[strlen($a) - 1] would work, it does not mean they are the most optimal approaches. The change to permit negative string offsets would require @ most 2-3 line change in Zend and it would be trivial to write a series of tests to cover the affected code. We are not talking about a major change here.
Ilia
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