Larry Wall wrote:
But the point is *not* to force it one way or the other--the point is
that many such functions would probably prefer not to commit one way or
the other, and they can't do that if they automatically throw away the
"dimensional" information.
The dimensional information has to be kept, but perhaps it doesn't need
to be kept in the list returned. Maybe it could be out of band like
$1, @+, pos(), etc in Perl 5, the dimensional structure dangles off the
flat list but can be somehow applied to restructure it. Possibly using
a general list to deep-structure operation.
This is similar to the context-sensitive version in simple cases, but
may be more powerful in cases where the external context doesn't
propagate (except by explicitly using want()). Perhaps when the
lists are generated and store before being returned.
[ from an older message ]
I think most other languages would probably just default to returning
a structured value and force the user to flatten explicitly. That doesn't
seem much like the Perl Way though...
That might not be so bad.
Could the chunky/smooth context information come from List/Capture context?
I'm not sure if that distinction exists.
Gotta go see a film,
Brad
--
If you attach bags of cloves to your body, you will not be effected by
inclemency or colds. -- Hagakure
