I've been thinking about this problem which comes up in my code a lot:

    @sorted = sort { $^a.foo('bar').compute <=> $^b.foo('bar').compute }
                @unsorted;

Often the expressions on each side are even longer than that.  But one
thing remains:  both sides are exactly the same, substitute a $^b for a
$^a.

I can see a couple less-than-desirable ways around this redundancy:

    @sorted = sort { infix:<=>( *($^a, $^b)Â.foo('bar').compute ) }
                @unsorted;

Which doesn't work if .compute returns a list... not to mention its
horrible ugliness.  Another is to define a variant of sort (haven't had
much practice with A6 material recently; here we go!):

    multi sub sort (&block($) = { $_ } : [EMAIL PROTECTED]) {
        sort { block($^a) cmp block($^b) } @data;
    }

    @sorted = sort { .foo('bar').compute } @unsorted;

Which has the disadvantage of forcing you to use C<cmp> and forcing an
ascending sort.

Any other ideas?  Is a more general solution necessary?

Luke

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