At 11:44 AM 9/6/2001 -0400, Ken Fox wrote:
>Yeah, I can see it now. Perl 6 has three kinds of variables:
>dynamically scoped package variables, statically scoped lexical
>variables and "Magical Disappearing Reappearing Surprise Your
>Friends Every Time" variables. Oh, and by the way, lexicals
>are really implemented using "Magical Disappearing Reappearing
>Surprise Your Friends Every Time" variables, so I guess we only
>have two kinds of variables...
Not to put a damper on your rant here (and a nice one it was... :) but this
is doable now. Heck, I can write a sub that completely rewrites the code
for its caller at will now, in perl 5. Your code is only safe by
convention. That safety isn't enforced in any way by the interpreter.
I think you're also overestimating the freakout factor. You already have
the easy potential for global variables and subroutines to change contents
and behaviour at whim, and the world's not come to an end. If someone does
go so far as to write a module that does truly bizarre and, more to the
point, unexpected and undocumented things that nobody'll use it.
Dan
--------------------------------------"it's like this"-------------------
Dan Sugalski even samurai
[EMAIL PROTECTED] have teddy bears and even
teddy bears get drunk