Re: Variable attributes (was Re: RFC 355 (v1) Leave $[ alone.)

[Peter Scott]

At 03:15 PM 10/2/00 -0700, Nathan Wiger wrote:
>Dan Sugalski wrote:
> >
> > Well, yeah, it'll sort of have to if we allow user-defined types. If 
> you do:
> >
> >    my Dog $spot : male;
> >
> > then the Dog package needs to be able to fetch the attributes. I've no idea
> > how that'd look--perhaps an attributes() function, a method in UNIVERSAL,
> > or something like that.
>
>There's two ways I've proposed in different RFC's. The first one
>utilizes a more general framework; the second one depends on C<tie>
>being used. A UNIVERSAL:: method wouldn't work because you've got to get
>attributes from arrays and hashes as well.

Maybe I'm just being dense, but why shouldn't arrays and hashes inherit 
attributes from UNIVERSAL?  tie()ing an array is really just like being 
able to call object methods on it distinct from its members, no?  So arrays 
and hashes could be objects too.  Hmm, am I saying that I should be able to 
write @array->method()?

There again, maybe it's just this head cold I've got.

--
Peter Scott
Pacific Systems Design Technologies