On 11 Sep 2007 at 13:04, Chas Owens wrote: > Negative indexing has been around at least since Perl 5 (and I think > it goes back much farther than that). As for compatibility with > future versions of Perl, you should have no problem with the Perl 5 > line (e.g. 5.10, the next and possibly last Perl 5 release, although I > believe they are planning Perl 5.12 now). That specific feature is > changing in Perl 6 (which will be released eventually). In Perl 6 a > negative index refers to elements before element 0*. That is this > > my @a = 1,2,3,4,5 > @a[-1] = 6; > > will create a new element before the one holding 1 and put 6 there; so > @a will now hold (6,1,2,3,4,5). If you wish to set the last element > of a Perl 6 array you must use the whatever** symbol minus the number > of elements you want to go back. So the Perl 5 code > > my @a = 1,2,3,4,5; > $a[-1] = 6; > > would be > > my @a = 1,2,3,4,5; > @a[*-1] = 6; > > The relevant Synopsis is S09: > http://dev.perl.org/perl6/doc/design/syn/S09.html > > * Pugs appears to be broken in this regard, it still treats indexes > like Perl 5 does and the whatever symbol maps to 0. > > ** from S02 > <<Ordinarily a term beginning with * indicates a global function or > type name, but by itself, the * term captures the notion of > "Whatever", which is applied lazily by whatever operator it is an > argument to. Generally it can just be thought of as a "glob" that > gives you everything it can in that argument position.>>
OH MY ! Yet another reason to stay away from Perl6. After reading that part of S09 I can't keep from thinking that Perl6 was designed specifically for golf and obfu. Well *. Jenda ===== [EMAIL PROTECTED] === http://Jenda.Krynicky.cz ===== When it comes to wine, women and song, wizards are allowed to get drunk and croon as much as they like. -- Terry Pratchett in Sourcery -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://learn.perl.org/
