This and other RFCs are available on the web at http://dev.perl.org/rfc/ =head1 TITLE Method calls SHOULD suffer from ambiguity by default =head1 VERSION Maintainer: Nathan Wiger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 24 Sep 2000 Last Modified: 28 Sep 2000 Mailing List: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Number: 277 Version: 2 Status: Developing =head1 CHANGES The first version was too cute, trying to prove a point but failing miserably. So here it is, in plain English. =head1 ABSTRACT RFC 244 proposes special-casing -> to quote the left operand, and eliminating the bareword indirect object syntax entirely. These are both Bad Ideas, and will likely cause a large number of longtime Perl hackers to run away screaming. Many people, myself included, view the ability to type: $q = new CGI; $val = shift->{fullname}; And have Perl DWIM is what makes Perl Perl, and fun. Forcing me to write: $q = new {'CGI'}; $val = shift()->{fullname}; Because this ambiguity upsets a few people is just plain silly. And B<very> un-fun. Tightening this syntax by default makes no sense. Rather, this is something that can easily be added to C<use strict>. See B<RFC 278> for details on C<use strict 'words'> and C<use strict 'objects'>. =head1 DESCRIPTION In Perl 5, there are already plenty of ways in which people can B<voluntarily> disambiguate the above: $q = new 'CGI'; # main::new('CGI'); $q = CGI::->new; # or 'CGI'->new; $val = shift::->{fullname}; # or 'shift'->{fullname} $val = shift()->{fullname}; # main::shift()->{fullname} And if people want this to be enforced, then they can easily C<use strict 'words'> as specified in RFC 278. Perl 6 should be a value add to Perl 5. It should not take away established, widely-used syntax just because of a little ambiguity. This is hardly the only syntactic ambiguity in Perl. =head1 IMPLEMENTATION Perl 6 should tokenize the above just like Perl 5. =head1 MIGRATION None. Why would we want there to be? =head1 REFERENCES RFC 28: Perl should stay Perl. RFC 278: Additions to 'use strict' to fix syntactic ambiguities RFC 244: Method calls should not suffer from the action on a distance
