Uri Guttman:
# BD> Fine. In Perl 5 we have a restriction on when you can
# and can't use
# BD> parens on a subroutine--you can omit them when the sub
# is predeclared,
# BD> and Perl will assume that no magic is going on. I see
# nothing wrong
# BD> with this rule.
#
# but you are conflating plain subs and method calls. perl6 can
# deal with predeclared subs and fixed argument signatures at
# compile time like perl5 can. but the same is not true in
# either 5 nor 6 with method calls as they can only be looked
# up at run time. the arguments passed to a method can be
I'm speaking to the very specific case where the invocant is typed, so
we know the (base) type at compile time.
# checked then against know method signatures and maybe
# multimethods could (dunno who or when that is decided. i
# think the class has to be declared as having multimethods) be
# invoked based on the arguments.
#
# so the need for parens on method calls is there if you have
# any possible compile time ambiguity of how many arguments to pass in.
But when you know the type beforehand, there shouldn't *be* any
ambiguity. You can see the methods in that class, and you know how many
arguments the biggest implementation of a multimethod[1] takes. Just
assume that that's the one being called.
Just to make things clear:
class X {
method x($a, $b) {
}
method x($a) {
}
}
my $obj1 = X.new;
my X $obj2 .= new;
$obj1.x $a; # syntax error (missing
parentheses on
# untyped method call, or
something like that)
$obj2.x $a; # OK, like $obj2.x($a)
$obj1.x $a, $b, $c; # syntax error
$obj2.x $a, $b, $c; # OK, like $obj2.x($a, $b), $c
I do *not* expect Perl to do the impossible or even the very difficult.
This isn't even very difficult.
[1] Is there a word for the chunk of code associated with a certain
signature?
--Brent Dax <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
@roles=map {"Parrot $_"} qw(embedding regexen Configure)
"If you want to propagate an outrageously evil idea, your conclusion
must be brazenly clear, but your proof unintelligible."
--Ayn Rand, explaining how today's philosophies came to be
