Author: larry
Date: Fri Nov 7 09:54:43 2008
New Revision: 14601
Modified:
doc/trunk/design/syn/S03.pod
doc/trunk/design/syn/S12.pod
Log:
get rid of pair methods; $obj ~~ :foo($bar) now simply does $obj.foo ~~ $bar
with all other adverbial pair notations having corresponding meanings, so
you can do things like $obj ~~ :$attr and $filehandle ~~ :!s.
Note that these now call ordinary methods, so for good or ill Str now has
a bunch of single-character methods like "foo".r.
Modified: doc/trunk/design/syn/S03.pod
==============================================================================
--- doc/trunk/design/syn/S03.pod (original)
+++ doc/trunk/design/syn/S03.pod Fri Nov 7 09:54:43 2008
@@ -12,9 +12,9 @@
Maintainer: Larry Wall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 8 Mar 2004
- Last Modified: 17 Oct 2008
+ Last Modified: 7 Nov 2008
Number: 3
- Version: 145
+ Version: 146
=head1 Overview
@@ -2169,16 +2169,19 @@
=item *
-The filetest operators are gone. We now use a C<Pair> as either a
-pattern or a method name to get the same effect:
+The filetest operators are gone. We now use a C<Pair> as a
+pattern that calls an object's method:
if $filename ~~ :e { say "exists" }
- if $filename.:e { say "exists" }
+
+is the same as
+
+ if $filename.e { say "exists" }
The 1st form actually translates to the latter form, so the object's
-class decides how to dispatch pair methods. It just happens that
+class decides how to dispatch methods. It just happens that
C<Str> (filenames), C<IO> (filehandles), and C<Statbuf> (stat buffers)
-default to the expected filetest semantics, but C<$regex.:i> might
+default to the expected filetest semantics, but C<$regex.i> might
tell you whether the regex is case insensitive, for instance.
Using the pattern form, multiple tests may be combined via junctions:
@@ -2202,11 +2205,11 @@
The advantage of the method form is that it can be used in places that
require tighter precedence than C<~~> provides:
- sort { $^a.:M <=> $^b.:M }, @files
+ sort { $^a.M <=> $^b.M }, @files
though that's a silly example since you could just write:
- sort { .:M }, @files
+ sort { .M }, @files
But that demonstrates the other advantage of the method form, which is
that it allows the "unary dot" syntax to test the current topic.
@@ -2227,7 +2230,9 @@
C<.file> attempts to return C<.io.file>.
Note that C<:s> still returns the filesize, but C<:!s> is true
-only if the file is of size 0.
+only if the file is of size 0, since it is smartmatched
+against the implicit False argument. By the same token,
+C<:s(0..1024)> will be true only for files of size 1K or less.
(Inadvertent use of the Perl 5 forms will normally result in treatment
as a negated postdeclared subroutine, which is likely to produce an
@@ -2996,7 +3001,7 @@
Any Num numeric equality +$_ == X
Any Str string equality ~$_ eq X
- Any Pair test object .:Xkey(Xval) (e.g. filetests)
+ Any Pair test object attribute .Xkey ~~ Xval (e.g. filetests)
Set Set identical sets $_ === X
Hash Set hash keys same set $_.keys === X
Modified: doc/trunk/design/syn/S12.pod
==============================================================================
--- doc/trunk/design/syn/S12.pod (original)
+++ doc/trunk/design/syn/S12.pod Fri Nov 7 09:54:43 2008
@@ -12,9 +12,9 @@
Maintainer: Larry Wall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 27 Oct 2004
- Last Modified: 14 Oct 2008
+ Last Modified: 7 Nov 2008
Number: 12
- Version: 64
+ Version: 65
=head1 Overview
@@ -731,20 +731,6 @@
my Dog $spot .= new(:tail<LONG> :legs<SHORT>);
-=head1 Pair query methods
-
-Certain classes such as filehandles allow colon pairs to be used as if they
-were methods. Method names beginning with a colon:
-
- $filehandle.:e
- $filehandle.:!x
-
-are expected to return a value that can be used as a boolean.
-While this is primarily intended for use by file tests, other classes
-may define such methods to provide a similar mechanism for interrogating
-properties. (Also note that syntactic category names are reserved for
-calling operators as if they were methods.)
-
=head1 Calling sets of methods
For any method name, there may be some number of candidate methods
