"Brent Dax" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Larry Wall:
> That's...odd.  Is $$ (the variable) going away?
>
> #     /./s                    /<any>/ or /<.>/ ???
>
> I think that . is too common a metacharacter to be relegated to
> this.

I think you failed to notice that '/s' on the regex. In general . will
still mean . but if you want it to match *anything* including a new
line, you have to call it <.>. Personally, I don't have a problem with
that.

> #     space           <sp> (or \h for "horizontal"?)
>
> Same thinking as '.'.

The golfers aren't going to like it for sure. But most of the time
when I'm doing production code I have /x turned on anyway, and in that
context, if I want to match a space and only a space, I have to do [ ]
anyway. 

It might be nice if we could have m:X// mean 'space and hash match
themselves'. 

> #     \t                      also <tab>
> #     \n                      also <lf> or <nl> (latter matching
> logical newline)
> #     \r                      also <cr>
> #     \f                      also <ff>
> #     \a                      also <bell>
> #     \e                      also <esc>
>
> I can tell you right now that these are going to screw people up.
> They'll try to use these in normal strings and be confused when it
> doesn't work.  And you probably won't be able to emit a warning,
> considering how much CGI Perl munches.

But assigning meaning to < and > is going to do that anyway. 

-- 
Piers

   "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a language in
    possession of a rich syntax must be in need of a rewrite."
         -- Jane Austen?

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