Hi all, On Mon, 3 Sep 2018 11:09:35 -0700 Larry Wall <la...@wall.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 03, 2018 at 11:45:58AM -0500, Stephen Wilcoxon wrote: > : Why the change in die handling between Perl 5 and 6? Suppressing line > : numbers with newline was very handy. Alternatively, adding some sort of > : directive would be more straight-forward (at least for Perl 5 users moving > : to Perl 6). > > Well, we did take Perl 5 users into account quite a lot, since many of > us came from that direction, and we hope more will come in the future. > > On the other hand, language design is all tradeoffs, and every time you > add a low-powered feature (or keep one, in this case), you raise the > barrier to entry for folks coming from other cultures, and you waste > mindspace remembering things that don't buy you much. For similar > reasons, <> changed to lines() and all the magic rules about which > variables are local to a loop went away. Likewise, a lot of the arcane > knowledge of how a given function behaves in scalar or list context went > away, mostly by splitting them into distinct operators that are easier > to read and document. Of course, the tradeoff is that that are then > more operators. > > So, sure, you could argue that we've just substituted one kind of arcane > knowledge for another, but at least you can justify something like > > exit note “Phooey”; > > by mere function composition without appealing to the authority of > a particular paragraph in the manual. And of course you could also > compose your own function if the situation ever rises more than once in > your program. > > my &eep = &exit ∘ ¬e; eep “Phooey”; > > In the specific case of this feature, one could also argue that putting > that much semantic weight on the final character of the string is > violating some kind of end-weight or one-pass principle, forcing a kind > of mental time-travel for the reader, if not for the compiler. > > Anyway, don't be a language designer if you want to make everyone happy > all the time. :-) > > Well, actually, you can want it, just don't expect it... :-) > I agree and I wrote about it here back in 2011 - https://shlomif-tech.livejournal.com/57811.html ("Your Programming Language Must Suck"). I also concentrate links to the more general theme of why one can never please everyone here: http://shlomifishswiki.branchable.com/Never_Try_to_Please_Everyone/ . Regards, Shlomi > Larry -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/ways_to_do_it.html All Chuck Norris has to do is *look* at Perl code and it interprets itself out of fear and respect. — DrForr — http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/facts/Chuck-Norris/ Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply .
