or perhaps for a long piece of code that would be used a lot. this ugly rectangle of code for example:

$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser]['access']=4;
$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser]['email']='';
$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser]['lastlogin']=0;
$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser]['projects']=array();

becomes

with($server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser]){
    $['access']=4;
    $['email']='';
    $['lastlogin']=0;
    $['projects']=array()
}

kind of like a function that's created on the fly and then destroyed when it's finished

<pre><?php

$currServ = 'test1';
$currDB = 'test2';
$currGroup = 'test3';
$currUser = 'test4';

$server = array();
$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser]['access']=4;
$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser]['email']='';
$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser]['lastlogin']=0;
$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser]['projects']=array();
var_export($server);
unset($server);

$server = array();
$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser] =array();
$server_curr =& $server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser];
$server_curr['access']=4;
$server_curr['email'] ='';
$server_curr['lastlogin']=0;
$server_curr['projects']=array();
var_export($server);
unset($server);
unset($server_curr);

$server = array();
$server_curr = array();
$server_curr['access']=4;
$server_curr['email'] ='';
$server_curr['lastlogin']=0;
$server_curr['projects']=array();
$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser] = $server_curr;
var_export($server);
?></pre>

Anyway, use objects.

One interesting use for this would be as an alternative to the convention of using method chaining with setters. For example:

$definition->addField(new StringField('username'))
    ->setRequired(true)
    ->setReadonly(true);

Is becoming a popular convention, but requires all your setters to return $this, which I personally dislike, and this pattern cannot be used with existing APIs such as PEAR modules.

Using the with statement, would facilitate the method chaining setters pattern without requiring hacks to your APIs. For example:

with ($definition->addField(new StringField('username')))
{
    ->setRequired(true);
    ->setReadonly(true);
}

This would require only that addField return the added object, which is more palatable to me compared to all setters returning $this.

Adding such a thing was discuessed multiple times and always rejected. Code like

$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser]['access']=4;
$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser]['email']='';
$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser]['lastlogin']=0;
$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser]['projects']=array();

can be written as


$t = &$server[$currServ][$currDB][$currGroup][$currUser];
$t['access']=4;
$t['email']='';
$t['lastlogin']=0;
$t['projects']=array()


without the need for a new construct.

Another alternative to the WITH keyword, can be achieved by designing your API 
with arrays in mind, 
such as the following:

(Taking the example above with definitions having fields added with addField)

I believe designing your API's like this makes this much clearer especially if 
you use the latest php 
array syntax [ ] instead of array()

For example:

instead of writing code like

$definition->addField(new StringField('username'))
    ->setRequired(true)
    ->setReadonly(true);

and what if you wanted to add multiple fields? such as

$definition
  ->addField(new StringField('username'))
      ->setRequired(true)
      ->setReadonly(true)
   ->addField(new NumberField('age'))
      ->setWholeNumbersOnly(true)
      

To allow this would cause really mangled API code!


The WITH keyword would solve this by allowing nested WITH constructs.


But an array-based API would be cleaner in my opinion:


definition->addFields(
 [
   'username' => new StringField(
     [
       'required'=> TRUE,
       'readOnly'=> TRUE,
     ]),

   'age'  => new NumberField(
     [
        'wholeNumbersOnly'=>TRUE
     ]),

   'password => new PasswordField(),

   'balance' => new CurrencyField(),

   'birthDate' => new DateField()
]);


(Where attributes or lists are optional the API implements them with default 
function argument values)

This is how I implement my own API's.