You must not have heard all the lame whining (online and otherwise) about how people just couldn't stand using new syntax, that it would spoil Perl forever, etc. I'm just annoyed by all that and I probably shouldn't have even replied :-) I love Perl, but that doesn't mean I never expect it to change. Dairy Queen dipcones, on the other hand...

BTW, it's lachoy. If you're curious who lachoy is, bow down before the great and powerful one.

Chris
M-x auto-bs-mode

So, BUU's code would change from:

blah blah"_$d->func_"somestuff";
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blah blah" _ $d->func _ "somestuff";
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And, I use the dot for string concatenation a lot too, BUU. I wish it weren't changing.

Back To Lurking,
Jeremy

I don't like it either. But on the plus side, you will be able to use the hyper concantenation operator.

print _("Blah blah",$d->func,"somewhat");
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When perl6 makes it's debut, I will probably use this form exclusively. It's too hard to tell at a glance between $foo_bar and $foo _ bar on my screen.

-Lee

"To be civilized is to deny one's nature."

Nifty, I didn't know about _(). Although the example might be better put

$string = _("Blah blah",$d->func,"somewhat");
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since

print "Blah blah ", $d->func, " somewhat";
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works today. What I am worried about is not $foo_bar vs $foo _ $bar but rather the later vs $foo - $bar. When we used the . operator a mis-shift would result in $foo > $bar which is easily seen even when you are skimming code.

Just think of how much this is going to cost in terms of Perl Golf characters. At the same time, though, aren't they running out of punctuation-type character operators found on the regular 104-key keyboard?

It is odd that period is used as an operator at all, really. Syntax wise, the fact that a scalar is both a string and a number complicates things somewhat. Still, why not something more abstract? Here's some useless ideas:

$foo = $bar:$nuu;    # Currently meaningless
$foo = $bar'$nu;     # Ye-olde ' operator?
$foo = $bar<->$nu;   # Maybe?
$foo = $bar$nu;      # Or nothing at all?
$foo = $bar $nu;     # Implied?
$foo = $bar~$nu;     # Getting kind of crazy with overloading
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Still, this "space underscore space" stuff smells of Python-like schenannigans.

I'm half-inclined to start a campaign to develop an alternative.

$foo = $bar:$nuu;    # Currently meaningless

I really don't want to have to try and parse

$concated = $x < $y ? $x:$y : $y:$x;
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I think the ' _ ' operator is ugly, but not that bad. In general I don't think there will be much call for it in the future since we will be able to say things like

$string = "for $x + $y the answer is $($x+$y)\n";
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instead of

$string = "for $x + $y the answer is " . ($x+$y) . "\n";
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