How easy will it be to install new methods into builtins?

[Brent Dax]

I was thinking about it today, and it occurred to me that we could make it very easy 
to install new
methods into the builtin types (SCALAR, ARRAY, HASH, CODE).  What if we simply had a 
package for
each of these builtin types such that you could say something like:

        sub ARRAY::merge(ARRAY $lhs, ARRAY $rhs) {
                my @result;

                my $ubound=($lhs.length < $rhs.length ? $rhs.length : $lhs.length) - 
1; #here i'm calling
ARRAY::length, not SCALAR::length

                for(0..$ubound) {
                        push @result, $lhs[$_ % $lhs.length];
                        push @result, $rhs[$_ % $rhs.length];
                }

                return @result;
        }

and expect that to be callable like C<@a1.merge(@a2)>?

Here's another possibility along the same lines:

        package SparseArray;    #yes, I know package is going away...
        @ISA=('ARRAY');         #without this, the stash assignment later would be 
illegal

        #do other stuff here...

and then later be able to say something like C<%main::{'@sparsearray'}=new 
SparseArray> and expect
*that* to work right?

This could be a more general tying mechanism.  It could also probably be integrated 
into vtables,
although I don't really know enough about how they work to say that for sure.  
(Obviously, this is
more of a Perl-level interface idea than an internals idea.  I suppose that's why I'm 
sending it
to -language.  :^) )

BTW, one other random thought I came up with while I was writing this:  Could 
inheritance be a
property?

        class My::Class is a('Other::Class');   #My::Class::ISA=('Other::Class')

--Brent Dax
[EMAIL PROTECTED]