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by johannes1234321 2401 days ago
As you mentioned the => syntax is already being used in PHP with associative arrays and can conflict in some places. Taking your example [$x => $x*2] this creates an array with $x doubled on index $x, while a user might want to create an array of functions.

The fn() syntax was a non-conflicting alternative, which got most support for being not too weird.
1 comments
mFixman 2401 days ago
I wonder why they didn't use `==>`, which PHP alternatives like Hack[1] already use.

[1] https://docs.hhvm.com/hack/functions/anonymous-functions

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johannes1234321 2401 days ago
In the end it's a matter of taste and preference. There are other options as well. Each contributor (and user) certainly has a favorite and in the end it is the solutions with biggest support (and least objection)

Bike shedding can certainly be done infinitely and sometimes one has to make a choice and move on.

(I have been release manager of PHP in earlier times and helped to steer through the namespace seperator debate and did the decision to not do short array syntax, yet, but wasn't involved in the short function syntax debate)

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