Re: RFC 109 (v1) Less line noise - let's get rid of @%

[Jon Ericson]

Perl6 RFC Librarian wrote:

[snip reconstructionist history and newer-is-better fallacy]

> I argue in this Brave New World the distinction between C<$x>, C<@x> and
> C<%x> are no longer useful and should be abolished. We might want
> to use all kinds of array objects, why should @x be special? Rather
> since there are infinitely many kinds of variable let's take the perl6
> opportunity to make things simple and just use C<$x> for everything.

But @ and % provide important context clues (if not to perl than
certainly for programmers).  We could also eliminate the plural case in
English, but this would be endlessly confusing for native speaker
(err... speakers).  Why not change @x so that it can represent other
types of arrays?  For instance:

  my @x;        # standard Perl array
  my @y[2, 3];  # 2x3 matrix (syntax guess)
  my FIFO @z;   # FIFO stack (another guess)

In other words, make your life easier rather than everyone else's
miserable. 

"We've got a golden opportunity here to turn Perl into whatever on earth
we like. Let's not take it." -- RFC 28


Jon
-- 
Knowledge is that which remains when what is
learned is forgotten. - Mr. King