> I still have my vote on %() as a hash constructor in addition to {}. :)
The problem I see with that is that % as a prefix implies a
*dereferencing*, though years of Perl5 conditioning like this:
%{ $mumble } = return_a_hash();
print_hash( %{ $mumble } );
(Yes, the braces are optional; I'm assuming that they'll still be needed
in Perl6, when $mumble is something complex.)
Using %(...) to create a hashref, as { ... } does in Perl5, would go
against all that, because the purpose of making a hashref is to
*reference* something. Now a unary % operator/sigil/prefix might mean
referencing, or it might mean dereferencing, depending on whether the
symbols following are (...) or {...}. Ouch.
I suppose we're going to have that kind of thing already in Perl6,
though, with {...} meaning both ref and deref, just as it has in Perl5:
%foo{"abc"} # dereference-type op, extract member "abc".
hash { "abc" => 1 } # reference-type op, construct member "abc".
That's kind of ouchy too, come to think of it.
--
Debbie Pickett http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~debbiep [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"You can't take me up, you can't wind me down, There's no escape but I'll never
drown, no wires or strings, no rough and smooth, just like fire and stings,
watch me closely, watch my every move." - _Wine from the Water_, Alan Parsons
