I use PHP as a general scripting language, and some compile or runtime options would be very useful:

- A no-tags mode that would have the interpreter behave as if it were always inside a <?php ?> block

- Standard file handles predefined, similiar to $argc and $argv[]: $stdin, $stdout, $stderr

- Quiet mode always enabled

The following script is too complicated:

#!/usr/local/bin/php -q
<?
    $l = "";
    $fp = fopen("php://stdin", "r");
    while (!feof($fp))
    {
        $s = fgets($fp, 5000);
        if ($l != $s)
        {
            echo $s;
            $l = $s;
        }
    }
?>

It would be much nicer to write it as follows:

#!/usr/local/bin/php
$l = "";
while (!feof($stdin))
{
    $s = fgets($stdin, 5000);
    if ($l != $s)
    {
        echo $s;
        $l = $s;
    }
}