Author: lwall
Date: 2009-10-27 19:38:55 +0100 (Tue, 27 Oct 2009)
New Revision: 28921
Modified:
docs/Perl6/Spec/S02-bits.pod
Log:
[S02] make <1 2 3> literals more allomorphic
Modified: docs/Perl6/Spec/S02-bits.pod
===================================================================
--- docs/Perl6/Spec/S02-bits.pod 2009-10-27 18:09:45 UTC (rev 28920)
+++ docs/Perl6/Spec/S02-bits.pod 2009-10-27 18:38:55 UTC (rev 28921)
@@ -13,8 +13,8 @@
Created: 10 Aug 2004
- Last Modified: 22 Oct 2009
- Version: 185
+ Last Modified: 27 Oct 2009
+ Version: 186
This document summarizes Apocalypse 2, which covers small-scale
lexical items and typological issues. (These Synopses also contain
@@ -2787,6 +2787,19 @@
To force a single value to become a list object in item context,
you should use C<< ['a'] >> for clarity as well as correctness.
+For any item in the list that appears to be numeric, the literal is
+stored as an object with both a string and a numeric nature, where
+the string nature always returns the original string. It is as if
+the item is converted to an appropriate numeric type, then a C<Str>
+conversion is mixed in that reproduces the original string (if normal
+stringification would produce something else). Hence:
+
+ < 1 1/2 6.02e23 1+2i > # Int/Str Rat/Str Num/Str Complex/Str
+
+The purpose of this would be to facilitate compile-time analysis of
+multi-method dispatch, when the user prefers angle notation as the
+most readable way to represent a list of numbers, which it often is.
+
The degenerate case C<< <> >> is disallowed as a probable attempt to
do IO in the style of Perl 5; that is now written C<lines()>. (C<<
<STDIN> >> is also disallowed.) Empty lists are better written with
