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Re: Thoughts on replacing -> with .

by radiantmatrix (Parson)
on Jun 17, 2013 at 21:36 UTC ( [id://1039475]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Thoughts on replacing -> with .

This is a big change, I hope the Porters don't rush to any decision. My thoughts in brief, as a Perl developer for nigh-on 20 years:

  1. Being "more like other languages" is not a good reason for a major operator change
  2. -> is, fundamentally, a dereference operator; it's used for objects because Perl objects are blessed references. Changing the operator for objects but not other references needlessly hides this
  3. ~ as a concatenation operator is, IMO, a recipe for developer confusion
  4. In most code I've worked with, concats are vastly more common than method calls. Why make the less-common operator easier to type and the more-common one harder to type? I acknowledge this may only reflect my opinion and the way I use Perl
  5. I happen to like the visual separation that -> provides. Its sheer width helps make method calls stand out; likewise, I like . as a concat, since its narrowness helps see that the elements "run together"

I have always wondered why no one seems to have proposed the use of some variant of the :: notation as an optional alternative to ->...

<radiant.matrix>
“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.” — Herm Albright
I haven't found a problem yet that can't be solved by a well-placed trebuchet

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