On Wed, 1 Jul 2026 at 18:31, Tim Düsterhus <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi > > Am 2026-06-29 20:37, schrieb Seifeddine Gmati: > > I'm actually in favor of deprecating `array()` too, and I raised this > > on the #php-internals Discord channel. The motivation there is weaker > > though: unlike `list`, deprecating `array()` does not free up a > > keyword, since `array` remains a type. The grammar simplification and > > having fewer things for newcomers to learn still apply, and IMO are > > good reasons on their own. If there's appetite for it, I'm happy to > > add it to the RFC. >
Hi Tim, > FWIW: I still have a rough draft to make `array()` (or rather: all > non-object types) proper functions that effectively would “stand in” as > cast operators. For `array()` specifically this would allow a > named-argument style of defining arrays with “unquoted keys”: > `array(foo: 1, bar: 2)`. This would require deprecating `array()` first anyway, no? Otherwise, dealing with it during parsing would be hacky (looking ahead at `array(foo` for `:` or `=>` or `,` or `)` to decide if it's an array or a function call, possible, but hacky think ).
