Damian Conway wrote:
>
> And has anyone pointed out that C<list> is just:
>
> sub list {@_}
Hey, an easy IMPLEMENTATION section! I like it. ;-)
No, I hadn't gotten that far. But you're right (surprise :). The above
sub is an list constructor just like "() =" is. Awesome. I guess that
throws the "core bloat" counterargument right out.
One thing I would like to clarify is why there are only two real data
contexts, 'scalar' and 'list', and why 'wantarray' was all Perl had in
the past:
$scalar = 'x'; # scalar context
@array = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5); # list context
%hash = (key, val, key2, val2); # list context
Granted, this is a grandiose oversimplification. But I want to nip the
"slippery slope" argument in the bud (i.e., "What next, boolean, hash,
etc, methods?"). I also want to dispell the misunderstanding that {} and
[] are used to construct hashes and arrays. They're not, they're used
for *anonymous* hashes and arrays, as seen in references:
$array = [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]; # array reference
$hash = { key, val, key2, val2 }; # hash reference
These are completely different beasts altogether. They are not
analogous. Witness:
$var = ( 1, 2, 3 ); # scalar context
-Nate
