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=head1 TITLE
length(@ary) deserves a warning
=head1 VERSION
Maintainer: Nathan Torkington <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 15 Sep 2000
Mailing List: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Number: 238
Version: 1
Status: Developing
Supercedes: RFC 212
=head1 ABSTRACT
Beginners often try C<length(@ary)> (which has bizarre consequences and
no real purpose). Make it emit a warning.
=head1 DESCRIPTION
Beginners think of the size of an array as its length, so try to use
the length() function to find this information. They should be told
by the compiler that this is not correct.
The warning would be triggered when Perl finds an array in scalar
context as the argument to length(). The construct serves no useful
purpose otherwise, so backwards compatibility isn't a problem.
While I originally suggested "just make it work", this would (1) steer
users away from the real understanding of context; (2) require changes
to the prototype system to permit length() to still be overridable.
While it is a good idea to do what users want, in this case I've been
convinced that the user would benefit from being told the correct way
to do it.
=head1 IMPLEMENTATION
When you check a length() function call, warn if its argument is a
scalar-context array.
=head1 REFERENCES
RFC 212: (retired) Make length(@array) work
perlfunc manpage for information on the length() function
