chromatic skribis 2004-04-14 12:07 (-0700):
> > I think %hash`key makes sense. But I'd like to find out if more people
> > like this idea.
> How do you request a hash slice with backticks?
You don't. There are %foo<<foo bar>> and %foo{'foo', 'bar'} already and
hash slices aren't used much at all.
The proposed ` is very much like the . that is used for calling methods.
Except for the possible leading minus, it can probably be parsed exactly
the same (i.e. allowing :: too, as Matthijs' implementation also
does).
It is also much like the way single elements work in Perl 5, except that
you can't use an expression. (i.e. where $hash{+shift} uses the shift
operator, %hash`shift would get value of the pair that has the key
'shift' and %hash`+shift would be a syntax error -- there is already
%hash{shift} for that and this too isn't used as often as literal string
keys.
Main purposes of ` are typability and readability. Anything that allows
more complex operations would require less readable syntax if used with
the backtick. Only simple literal strings (valid identifiers, but being
able to start with a digit or minus) and simple scalar variables (the
thing perlreftut calls "atomic") like $foo can be used.
Juerd
