The benefit of overloading it, is that existing code "does the right thing", given whatever the new underlying context is, everyone can use the old idioms, even though they aren't quite the same.

In fact, a good overload would not lose functionality on normal arguments. For instance, what if someone wanted to instrument logging by absolute filename, to collect statistics? Extending -e to do this would be easier than replacing every file test operator call everywhere, including external packages.

For these kinds of questions, it's better if we get a real sense of the OP's ultimate goal and purpose, before declaring "that's a bad idea" just because it usually is.

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.