Tom Christiansen asked
> Do you really think
> =for comments
> or
> =begin comments
> ...
> =end comments
> are that bad? Sure, they have to be on statement boundaries, but
> that's more of a feature than a bug.
Hi Tom,
Do I think it is "that bad"? No. Of course not. I use it all the time. In
fact I'm very used to it.
But that's not the point.
The question I, as a member of this mailing-list was presented with was
(something like) "If you, the perl programming community, could reinvent
Perl, what would you like to end up with?"
So rather than making a list of things I am used to, or things that I don't
think are that bad, I chose to look at Perl with fresh eyes. I considered
other programming languages I use. I tried to recall the things that made
Perl so hard for me to learn, back in the beginning. Lack of multiline
comments was not a big thing, nor was it high on the list, but I *was* asked
to say whatever my opinion was, so I did.
Can Perl survive and even thrive without multiline comments? Yes! Could we
continue to instruct newcommers that perl multiline comment are spelled "P -
O - D". Sure! Heck, we could even say its a quaint feature, a reminder of
Perl's roots as a (primarily) Unix shell scripting language. Perhaps that
will be what we all decide -- that its not worth the trouble, that we like
things how they are, or whatever. I will happily continue using and
supporting Perl.
However the proposition is on the table. I've given my arguments for why I
think it should be considered. But, to paraphrase JFK, I don't believe the
question is *why* (make things clearer, more logical, more powerful) but
instead I would ask you, why not?!! (And this is not retorical. I invite
you, and everyone, to offer up some arguments, just please, a little meatier
than "its not that bad".)
--Michael
