Jonathan Gardner <jgard...@jonathangardner.net> writes:
> One of the bad things with languages like perl
FYI: the language is called Perl, the program that executes a Perl
program is called perl.
> without parentheses is that getting a function ref is not obvious. You
> need even more syntax to do so. In perl:
>
> foo(); # Call 'foo' with no args.
> $bar = foo; # Call 'foo; with no args, assign to '$bar'
> $bar = &foo; # Don't call 'foo', but assign a pointer to it to '$bar'
> # By the way, this '&' is not the bitwise-and '&'!!!!
It should be $bar = \&foo
Your example actually calls foo...
[..]
> One is simple, consistent, and easy to explain. The other one requires
> the introduction of advanced syntax and an entirely new syntax to make
> function calls with references.
The syntax follows that of referencing and dereferencing:
$bar = \...@array; # bar contains now a reference to array
$bar->[ 0 ]; # first element of array referenced by bar
$bar = \%hash; # bar contains now a reference to a hash
$bar->{ key }; # value associated with key of hash ref. by bar
$bar = \&foo; # bar contains now a reference to a sub
$bar->( 45 ); # call sub ref. by bar with 45 as an argument
Consistent: yes. New syntax? No.
Also, it helps to think of
$ as a thing
@ as thingies indexed by numbers
% as thingies indexed by keys
--
John Bokma j3b
Hacking & Hiking in Mexico - http://johnbokma.com/
http://castleamber.com/ - Perl & Python Development
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