I hate $this and array(...) ! [PHP rant]

$this->

I have no reason to hate the explicit reference to 'self' or 'this' object.

But it shouldn't be repeated everywhere all around the codebase, every single time!

Ruby:

@name = @first_name + ' ' + @last_name

Java:

name = firstName + " " + lastName

PHP:

$this->name = $this->first_name . ' ' . $this->last_name

Unnecessary typing, unnecessary duplication. I should create a shortcut just for typing "$this->"

array(...)

array(2, 3, 5) doesn't look so bad.

But when you're dealing with nested associative arrays (and it's quite common), it doesn't look very good.

$this->_voucher->setOptions(array(         'storeId' => 'voucherStore',         'storeType' => 'dojo.data.ItemFileReadStore',         'storeParams' => array(                 'url' => $router->assemble(array('controller' => 'index',                         'action' => 'vouchers-for-number', 'mobile_number_id' => 1)),                 'clearOnClose' => true),         'dijitParams' => array('searchAttr' => 'title') ));

Ruby and JavaScript nails the sweet spot here. As with Scala (on JVM).

Java (the language) is at least as guilty as PHP on this front and much worse hehehe.