Matthew wrote:
Today I propose a pragma that changes how numbers are presented in Perl 6. The idea arises from a discussion on the freenode channel #perl6, available here: http://irclog.perlgeek.de/perl6/2010-09-01#i_2773432
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I only see this pragma as being useful within limited circumstances, such as when applied lexically for when you want to use a large number of numeric literals in some other base, rather than always at a file level.
Generally speaking, I see it better to explicitly specify the base with each number when that base isn't ten, because it is much easier for people to correctly read the code.
Believe me when I say I empathize with wanting to let other numeric bases have equal treatment to base 10, but I believe the best way to do that in general is support a common syntax for specifying the base with each number, and Perl 6 already provides this.
See also my Muldis D language which has explored these same kinds of ideas: http://search.cpan.org/dist/Muldis-D/lib/Muldis/D/Dialect/PTMD_STD.pod#General_Purpose_Integer_Numeric_Literals -- Darren Duncan
