>The C<local> operator of Perl5 and earlier does not do what it claims
>to and should be renamed.
How about:
override
meaning: ignore the value you've seen so far, for now, you'll use my
value.
I can't say that any of the proposed new names actually "clicks". But
"hide" and "save" are to much involved with how this feature is
implemented, and not with what's its purpose. "shadow" or "mask" come
closer, but to me, these ring too many bells of other applications
("shadow blocks" in FORTH, wich is documentation associated with code,
or cache, as in "shadow RAM"; and bitmasks, respectively).
I definitely do not agree that the word should be a verb. Why not?
Because it's supposed to describe a situation: a variable's temporal
scope; and not an action, stuffing variable values under the carpet.
"local" works nicely as a word, apart from the implied meaning of
spatial scope. But the same kind of word would be nice.
--
Bart.
