Well, I'll try to reach to an agreement here, since this discussion is
getting pretty much pointless.
What do we know:
a) Many of us want Perl to have globals as default, what is opposed to some
that want `use strict' and `-w' turned on by default.
b) Some of us (that would be me, I think) think that `my' doesn't DWIM,
while most think `my' is OK the way it is now.
Well, for item a), I have a proposal. Why don't we ship Perl 6 with two
different binaries? Like `perl' and `pqd' (perl-quick-and-dirty) or `p6' or
anything like that? One would have strict & warnings on by default, while
the other (whose name is shorter and would therefore save some typing) could
still be used for q&d scripts and one-liners? That would also make
unnecessary the `-w' and `-e' switches of `perl' binary as well. That's the
better I can think that (could) please evaryone (although I know someone
will probably not like it...).
As to the second item b), I would say I withdraw my complaints about `my' if
my other proposal of `use scope' gets approved (since then I don't need `my'
anymore!). I guess I would be happier with `use scope', and I also think it
would make you happier, since it wouldn't bother the current way `my' works,
and all you'd have to do is not bothering the `scope' pragma exists.
Implementing it would certainly be very easy, since the compiler already has
to determine the scope of variables, it would only have to determine it in a
different way. In Perl 6, where the compiler will be written in Perl, it
would be even possible to write it as another front-end to the byte-code
generator, but I think it should be a pragma (as strict is, and it does kind
of the same thing), since then it and the main compiler would be maintained
together.
So, I ask:
Is this OK with you? Does this bother someone?
And:
Is there any flaws or holes in my proposal for `use scope'? I've thought
about it very much and I can't find any problems and no AAAD. Is there any?
I hope I can calm things a bit here, since I'm sure we'll never agree on
what's better, this is too much a matter of taste, and we shouldn't discuss
taste.
- Branden
