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=head1 TITLE
unlink() should be left alone
=head1 VERSION
Maintainer: Nathan Wiger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 04 Aug 2000
Version: 1
Mailing List: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Number: 29
=head1 ABSTRACT
Some people have suggested that unlink() is too Unix
centric, that that it should be renamed to something
like delete() or remove().
This should not happen. unlink() should remain unlink().
=head1 DESCRIPTION
While on the surface, renaming unlink() may seem like
a not-too-bad-idea, in reality it has many bad parts:
1. It confuses experienced Perl, C, and Unix programmers
2. It makes link() and symlink() almost non-sensical
3. It's possible to have more than one link to a file
in Unix, meaning unlink() != delete().
4. It's a useless change. It's not broken.
Renaming a function just for the sake of renaming a
function, when in reality it works identically to the
native C counterpart, does not add value to Perl 6.
=head1 IMPLEMENTATION
Nothing to be done!
For those that are adamant about this, I suggest that
they consider writing a module, say "Win32::Synonyms",
that could be composed of typeglobs:
*delete = \&CORE::unlink;
With better referencing in Perl 6 this should be easily
possible. However, I think it's RABID (Really A Bad IDea)
at best.
=head1 REFERENCES
RFC 28 (v1) Perl should stay Perl, by Simon Cozens.
Unix unlink(2) man page
