Hello. We are all familiar with this:
(1..10).WHAT # => Range() @foo = 1..10; @foo.WHAT # => Array() When you assign a range to @foo, the result is an array. Something similar happens, for example, if you assign a scalar to @foo... The context of the assignment causes Perl 6 to convert the value into an array. I was wondering if this sort of magic is limited to pre-defined types (arrays, hashes, etc) or if it can be extended to any class that I might create. For example, imagine hat I create a 'Vector' class to do basic linear algebra. Imagine that it works this way: my @vec = Vector.new( 1,2,3,4 ) @vec * 3 # => ( 3,6,9,12 ) In other words, the '*' operator is overloaded to behave like scalar x vector multiplication in linear algebra. I was thinking that it would be neat if instead you could do this: my Vector @vec; @vec = 1,2,3,4; @vec.WHAT # => Vector() In other words, the "context" of the "=" sign tells Perl 6 to convert the array (1,2,3,4) into a Vector() object (presumably using the .new() method). As an additional example, you could imagine a matrix class like this: my Matrix @mat; @mat = [ \[ 1,2,3], \[3,4,5], \[5,6,7] ]; In my mind, what would happen here is that the array on the right-hand side (an array of arrays) would be converted into a matrix, which is a 2D object, and you could do regular matrix operations. Is this sort of thing possible in Perl 6? Cheers, Daniel. -- I'm not overweight, I'm undertall.
