On Tue, Aug 15, 2000 at 10:26:13PM -0600, Nathan Torkington wrote:
> I like the idea of adding the context-aware operators, but I don't
> think I'd use them as often as I use "the number of things in the
> array". I think most Perl programmers would be in the same camp.
> Unless you can show a couple of cool things that this makes possible,
> that is.
>
> So I'd say: option, yes. Default, no.
I also like the idea of context-aware operators. I don't know if I
like them enough to want to break with former practice, but I do know
that I don't like the idea of making them optional. This would be
the mother of all action-at-a-distance hells:
set_size(@elts * 5); # size = Five times the number of elements.
set_size(@elts * 5); # $size = The number of elements -- someone
# turned on context-sensitive operators,
# 2000 lines above here.
I don't know what the right thing to do is. Context is crypto enough
these days, without shifting the rules on operator contexts around.
Perhaps the benefits outweigh the breakage that will occur.
- Damien
