On Sat, Oct 10, 2020 at 4:49 PM Tobias Boege <t...@taboege.de> wrote:
> On Sun, 11 Oct 2020, Tobias Boege wrote: > > On Sat, 10 Oct 2020, William Michels via perl6-users wrote: > > > then proceed to process the function call. As it is my understanding > that > > > Raku incorporates a lot of different programming paradigms (imperative, > > > object-oriented, functional, etc.), I'm not sure where this behavior > falls > > > on the 'paradigm ladder'. > > > > > > > If you want to view it as a matter of paradigm, I guess it would be the > > "operator-centric paradigm", except that it is a method and not an > operator. > > > > The Array class inherits methods from Cool and when you call a method > from > > Cool on the Array, the Cool part of the array will answer the call. The > > Array is Cool to advertise that it can be evaluated in numeric and string > > "context". In string context, the array becomes joined using spaces as > > delimiters. Put more bluntly: when you treat an array like a string > > (by calling a string-related method of Cool on it), then Raku treats it > > as a string, even if it must convert it to one before. [ This may sound > > magical, but in reality Array just obtains the method .split from Cool > > and its implementation explicitly converts the invocant, whatever it > > may be, to a Stringy on which a sensible split is defined. ] > > > > Oh, it seems like I was far too slow. From all the other answers, I think > Brad put best what I tried to express using many redundant words. And he > avoided the historically charged and probably inaccurate term "context". > > Best, > Tobias > Thank you, Tobias! user@mbook~$ raku #test numeric function calls on array user@mbook~$ raku #enter REPL To exit type 'exit' or '^D' > my @nums = 0, π/2, 3 * π/2; [0 1.5707963267948966 4.71238898038469] > say @nums.elems 3 > say @nums.sin.elems 1 > say @nums.sin 0.1411200080598672 > say @nums.elems.sin 0.1411200080598672 > say sin(3) 0.1411200080598672 > $*VM moar (2020.06) > At first perusal one might conclude that calling .sin on an array "auto-joins" the arrays elements, but in fact, calling .sin on an array returns the sin() of the number of array elements. The two calls "@nums.sin" and "@nums.elems.sin" give exactly the same result. I'm ignorant of the 'historically charged' use of the term 'context', although I interpret your comment to suggest that the term 'context' now may be a disfavored concept. If so, then all the more reason to obviate the need to explain this concept to new Raku programmers. --Best, Bill.
