Have you considered the difference that separate pass compilation as used by Eiffel, and runtime compilation as used my Perl makes?

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file_status (filedesc: INTEGER): INTEGER is
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... looks to me like the types are written after the typed variables/parameters. Hence ... looks like it's not using prefix types. All I'm trying to say is that we should look at C and NOT repeat it's seemingly bright ideat to put the type before the variable ending up putting the type information all around the variable.

Jenda


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In Perl 6 you can put the type either before or after, taking end-weight into account. So

    my Int @array;
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is equivalent to

    my @array of Int;
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which in turn is really short for

    my @array is Array of Int;
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so it's easy to see how you can end up with cool things like

    my @array of Hash of Tree of Int;
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But Perl, either in its 5 or 6 incarnation is not going to have pointers anyway. Also, in 6 the static type system is optional, and in 5, should it ever be brought to it, it would too.

Yeah, it doesn't have pointers, it has references. Is the difference between the two relevant? I think not!

Jenda


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Yeah, it doesn't have pointers, it has references. Is the difference between the two relevant? I think not!

In this context, it is. Because nobody is proposing to (to paraphrase your previous example) have function signatures for e.g. references of references of arrays of Int. That model just doesn't fit in Perl because you don't use references for the same purposes that you do in C. FWIW they will even be more transparent in Perl 6.

sub neuter (Dog $bobby is rw) { ... }
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