At 11:43 PM 8/15/00 -0400, Chaim Frenkel wrote:
> >>>>> "MC" == Mark Cogan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
>MC> What should:
>MC> @a = defined @a;
>MC> return?
>
>Counter example: @a = \($a, $b, $c);
I guess I'm missing the point; how is this different from
@a = [$a,$b,$c];
which works to be the same as
push @a, [$a,$b,$c];
?
[]
>MC> || may be a suboptimal example, but I think the idea that a @-variable
>MC> without an iteration function refers to the array as a whole, and not its
>MC> elements is an intuitive one, and having array iteration magically happen
>MC> when you're not looking is dangerous.
>
>Not unless you are coming from a math background or are an old basic
>programmer, and would like to have matrix operations built in.
But we're trying to decide what is best for perl as a whole, not just what
is good for math people who use perl. I don't think that the requirement
that a relatively small portion of the user base put :
use magical_array_iteration;
at the top of their code is too outre.
(and, for that matter, it might be nice to have an environment variable
that implicitly sets -M command line options in the same way that PER5LIB
sets -I. That way, math types can just set their perls to preload all the
modules they want.)
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Mark Cogan [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1-520-881-8101
ArtToday www.arttoday.com
