On Wed, Mar 03, 2010 at 05:39:58PM -0800, Darren Duncan wrote: : Damian Conway wrote: : >Surely this is not a common-enough requirement to warrant a special : >syntax. : > : >At 80-columns, you can represent integers up to : <snip> : >Surely that's enough for the vast majority of users, isn't it? : : Well, 80 columns was an example, albeit the most common, but the : principle idea was to support writing code that fit into very narrow : spaces (such as may result from having the 80-col constraint plus a : whole bunch of code indent levels) while being able to keep the code : easily readable and nicely formatted.
Dealing with antediluvian displays sounds like a good spot for that ancient technology, the preprocessor, : I also figured that this would be a fairly simple thing to do. Well, it will be simple, once we have macros; in fact, textual macros can be regarded simply as scoped preprocessors, with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities pertaining thereto. I think macros will provide enough language support for this sort of "hard things should be possible" escape hatch. And remember you can always override the grammar if you have special reasons for doing so. That's what Perl 6 is all about. It's not about foreseeing every possible twinge of misgiving that anyone may come to feel in the next 100 years... Sure, we're trying to create a gigantic sweet spot in Perl 6, but Willy Wonka knows you can't have the whole world, and if you could, you can't have it now. :) Larry
