The PHP array is a wonderful data structure with an awesome set of properties. This blog post contains a lot of "problems" that are somewhat trivial and have been reasonably solved in PHP. This comment will be downvoted to oblivion without discussion.
> This comment will be downvoted to oblivion without discussion.
If you can see the future, I recommend playing the lottery. If you're a snarky ass, I recommend not commenting.
I've been working with PHP for five+ years now, and only started working with Python in the last year or so. You're right - working with PHP's arrayhash isn't too terribly complicated, but having actual arrays and hashes as different types is super convenient. At least once a day, I think fondly of Python and wish I could use it - list comprehensions and negative indices could eliminate the need for half of PHP's array functions and make for cleaner and more readable code.
> If you can see the future, I recommend playing the lottery.
I can't see the future, but I can edit the past. It's just a little disappointing to be downvoted without anyone actually commenting on the subject.
> but having actual arrays and hashes as different types is super convenient.
I agree especially if, in the language, arrays and hashes are objects with methods.
I didn't claim PHP's arrays were the greatest data structure on earth but ordered hashes that special-cases integer indexes is a pretty nice procedural-style data structure. PHP doesn't really have arrays; it's just the hash type is flexible enough to do double-duty.
Apparently, on Hacker News, having such opinions is both downvote worthy and punch-in-the-face worthy.
> It's just a little disappointing to be downvoted without anyone actually commenting on the subject.
When I saw your comment, it didn't look downvoted to me. You clearly realize that people can vote on comments - has it occurred to you that comments can bounce back from a negative score? That is, unless you append some passive aggressive horse-shit to the end.
Honestly, I don't know if we gain anything by PHP having arrays pull double duty in this way. The only advantage is, what, having one less keyword to remember?
You said that PHP's arrays/hashes were awesome, but did not say why. In other words, you did not contribute to the discussion. This may have attracted some of your downvotes; certainly it made it your post unlikely to convince anyone of anything.
