Re: Should perl implement ,= or maybe overload .= (array context)

To me, making .= do array concat seems rather off, for similar reasons to + not doing string concat. It's just not the right operator for the job. ,= is rather more interesting, but I don't really see a reason to introduce it; push @foo, @bar works just like you'd propose @foo ,= @bar to do.

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Re^2: Should perl implement ,= or maybe overload .= (array context) by EvanCarroll (Chaplain) on Aug 23, 2006 at 18:47 UTC
I agree fully with the example on '+', and '.' operators and that's why I thought ,= was more consistent with perl philosophy; but favoring a function'al approach rather than an operator approach for arrays seems more consistent with PHP a la array_new. As a side note though the analogy doesn't hold entirely true, `perl -e'print "4 foo"+"1"'` will demonstrate a purpose for +'ing two strings. I like '.=' more because it is clear what it should do in either context, and i don't really see a need for a ',='. Either operator would have a lower level of precedence too. Evan Carroll www.EvanCarroll.com	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Should perl implement ,= or maybe overload .= (array context) by TimToady (Parson) on Aug 23, 2006 at 19:31 UTC
We've debated adding `,=` to Perl 6, but so far have decided it would too easy to confuse with the `.=` operator visually. I suppose we could add `,=` just for completeness and then come back in six months and deprecate anyone who is using it. `:-)` As for unifying with the `.=` operator, that wouldn't work at all in Perl 6 because we've taken over dot for method calls, and `.=` already indicates that you want to turn a non-mutating method call into a mutating method call. The append operator in Perl 6 is the `~=`, but in Perl 6 the `~` character has very strong implications of stringification, and we wouldn't want to break that. All that being said, it'd be trivial for you to add your own `,=` operator to Perl 6, and that's probably where we should leave it.	[reply]


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