>   and here goes the problem, some people here understand the issue a bit
>  better than others and some people actually do the work because they can
>  and are being respected for - just by their experience...
I understand the need to have the final decision made by the core developers. 
Designing by committee never works but I also find that it is generally hard 
to tell when someone does or does not have an understanding of the inner 
workings of whatever is being suggested and in many cases it also is not 
necessary.

Two good examples recently have been both scalar type hinting and array syntax 
discussions. Any PHP developer worth their salt can form a very worthy 
opinion on the benefits and disadvantages of both issues. When it comes to 
discussions about how exactly something is implemented into the core, that's 
naturally a discussion for those with an understanding of the internals.

Then there is also the fact that even someone of the "experienced" developers 
on this list are not always capable of mature commentary. We witnessed this 
with the couple dozen "if you want Java, use Java" comments on the scalar 
type hinting thread.

I much rather judge each comment and suggestion by the technical merits of 
exactly is being said and also draw a distinct difference between a technical 
argument and an opinion, BOTH which have their place in discussions about new 
features and changes.

>  Either way there is a clear functional difference. The old array style
>  syntax looks like a function call, or a contructor. The new one makes one
>  thing clear, you will get an array.
E.g. this is clearly an opinion. As is mine that it honestly does not matter 
whether or not it looks like a function call. So do most the control 
structures; if(), for(), while(), which(), foreach(), etc. There is nothing 
wrong with that. In my opinion, it only makes it clear and easy to catch when 
you are reading code (particularly that which someone else wrote).

Tomi Kaistila
PHP Developer

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