I don't know how I ever got along without hashes. Well, I do, but it wasn't pretty. It still isn't. In the statically typed language I'm forced to work with, 'associative array'-like classes have been added, but they are less than robust. You have to have one class for numeric keys and string values, another for string keys and string values, and ... you get the idea (if you need multidimensional hashes, just bang your head against the wall...you'll forget that you needed them in the first place :).

Another feature I appreciate is variable length argument lists for functions. More than once I've wanted to add an optional argument to a function, but don't want to change every call to the function.

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