Okay, now that I've had some time working with Parrot assembler, I've
developed a list of complaints. ;^)
1. No if(s|sc, i|ic)
We're treating strings as second-class citizens here. Why shouldn't you
be able to do an 'if' on a string? You could interpret it as the
string's length, or the string's length && string ne "0".
2. No unless
'unless' is often more useful than 'if'. Observe:
# if(I0) {some stuff} else {other stuff}
if I0, BeginIF
branch ElseIF
BeginIF: some stuff
branch EndIF
ElseIF: other stuff
EndIF:
vs.
unless I0, ElseIF
some stuff
branch EndIF
ElseIF: other stuff
EndIF:
In the first case, the if block uses two branches, and in the second it
only uses one. Maybe I'm just being nitpicky, but I find the second one
a lot cleaner.
3. eq and friends: branching
The greatest oddity I've found so far is the eq operator and its pals.
While I'm sure these'll be great for something like 'if($foo eq $bar)',
they're less than optimal for anything more complicated: 'if($foo eq
$bar && $foo eq $baz)', or even the simple '$foobar=$foo eq $bar'. The
best way I've found so far to use eq and friends in a generic way is:
#I0=I1 eq I2
eq I1, I2, YES
set I0, 0
branch END
YES: set I0, 1
END:
That's pretty suboptimal, considering that it could be:
eq I0, I1, I2
and even the if case would just be:
#if(I1 eq I2)
#I0 is the temp register
eq I0, I1, I2
if I0, ...
That's a lot cleaner, isn't it?
4. eq and friends: string variants
One thing that seems to be missing is string and numeric variants on the
comparison ops. While this isn't a problem now, it may be once we get
PMCs.
I can probably write a patch to fix all this, but first we have to
decide if it needs fixing. Some of these are kind of nitpicky, but
they're still things I find annoying. Thoughts?
--Brent Dax
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Configure pumpking for Perl 6
When I take action, I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10
empty tent and hit a camel in the butt.
--Dubya
