{DESIGNER ALERT - Allison, what think?}
On Thu, Aug 17, 2006 at 12:31:11PM -0700, Patrick R. Michaud via RT wrote:
> I rely on the "return empty string" behavior. In particular, changing it
> to return NULL will mean in many places that I will have to replace
> single-line key lookups
>
> $S0 = hsh['key']
>
> with
>
> $S0 = hsh['key']
> unless null $S0 goto label
> $S0 = ''
> label:
Indeed. I think we can reduce the pain of dealing with this to the point
where you'll hardly feel it. For example, I really like Python's lookup
semantic where you can provide the default value on the call.
How about a 'default' opcode that provides a value instead of null? It
would work for strings and PMCs. Something like:
$S0 = default hsh['key'], ''
or
$P0 = new .Undef
...
$P1 = default hsh['key1'], $P0
$P1 = default hsh['key2'], $P0
...
It would work without the lookups too:
$S0 = default $S0, '' # if $S0 is null, assign it ''
what say?
--
Chip Salzenberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
