dear all 

very often the following expression is being used in applications using file manipulation (specially treating XML contents): 

$cont = join ("", file ("test.xml")); 

... i would like to propose an addtional attribute in the argument list of the function file(). 

lets consider that: 
$cont = file ("test.xml", FALSE) or $cont = file ("test.xml") 
                would be equivalent to: 
                $cont = file ("test.xml") 

and on the other hand: 
$cont = file ("test.xml", TRUE) 
                would be equivalent to: 
                $cont = join ("", file ("test.xml")) 

the second argument would therefore represent an attribute, which let one specify not only to return an ARRAY (attribute=FALSE, default) but also a STRING (attribute=TRUE). adding this argument would not affect older or current implementations or usage of the function file(). 

what do you think about this? 

best regards, urs 

--
Urs Gehrig <urs@circle.ch>
http://www.circle.ch