brian d foy writes: > In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Smylers > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > brian d foy writes: > > > > > In article > > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Damian > > > Conway <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > No. It's Pod. *Any* line that begins with '=begin' always starts a Pod > > > > block. Always. > > > > > > As you know, one of the biggest complaints about Perl is that you have > > > to have a lot of special rules knowledge to figure some things out. > > > > Indeed. What's much nicer is to be able to state that a given rule > > "always" applies. > > Well, now explain literal strings :)
Fortunately Larry has found a way in which literal strings will still work as you (and your students) expect. > The rules for Pod5 always applied too, so I don't see what we've > gained here as far as the simplicity of rules Well the new is simpler. > Putting aside this particular situation, the argument comes down to > where does the water balloon pooch out? We haven't lost any > complexity, it's just in different places. Maybe some places need less > complexity and some places could stand a little more. I agree with that. I also think that this particular change is worth the risk of a learner putting an assignment at the start of a line, especially given: * With the exception for literal strings, this now pretty much only applies to assignment. * Because the C<=> has to be followed immediately by the Pod directive, any C<=>s with space after them or assigning a quoted string will be immune; only those assigning the return values of functions will be affected. That's slim. Even allowing for Sod's Law I would happily lead a beginners' Perl course and chance not mentioning this exception Smylers
