commitbot (>>>>), Brandon (>>>), Mark (>>), Carl (>): >>>> + has $!age is ref; # BUILD will automatically use ref binding, not >>>> copy >>> >>> Perl6 isn't done until it has reinvented Algol 68? >> >> [...] >> >> I'm not sure what exactly the repercussions of doing attribute >> initialization with 'is ref' are apart from that. Brandon, if your >> oblique reference to Algol 68 meant something more than what I >> uncovered above, feel free to enrich the discussion by sharing what >> you know about the possible consequences of spec'ing things this way. > > I imagine Brandon was more referring to pass-by-reference, which was > introduced into procedural HLLs by Algol-68.
Oh! It was that simple. Going back and doing ack on the spec, I see that this actually constitutes the only mention of 'is ref'. My confusion possibly stems from the fact that we (IIRC) used to have a param trait with this name. Anyway, the change is still pretty fresh, and we'll see if it survives. In the meantime, feel free to point out why passing by reference is a bad idea, and why getting double layers of array in the attributes would be a lesser evil. Meanwhile, the uncanny similarities between Perl 6 and Algol 68 continue to strike me: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALGOL_68> (]): ] ALGOL 68 [...] was conceived as a successor to the ALGOL 60 programming ] language, designed with the goal of a much wider scope of application and more ] rigorously defined syntax and semantics. // Carl
