Re: Overloading operators: -> to .

You could probably overload '.' to mean '->', but '->' is not overloadable. Watch out for interaction with '.='. You may not be able to pass arguments to your methods, since '.' only takes two arguments.

Why do this? I don't much approve of the purging of C notation from perl 6, and there seems to be no reason at all for it to spill back into perl 5.

After Compline,
Zaxo

Comment on Re: Overloading operators: -> to .

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Re: Overloading operators: -> to . by Abigail-II (Bishop) on Sep 26, 2003 at 08:55 UTC
You may not be able to pass arguments to your methods, since '.' only takes two arguments. Oh, sure you can. You just have to use a trick: `#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; no warnings; package UNIVERSAL; sub AUTOLOAD { my $method = $UNIVERSAL::AUTOLOAD; $method =~ s/.*:://; return if $method eq "DESTROY"; [$method => @_]; } package DotDotDot; use overload "." => \&dot; sub new { bless [] => shift; } sub method { my $self = shift; print "method: @_\n"; } sub dot { my $self = shift; my ($method, @args) = @{+shift}; $self -> $method (@args); } package main; my $obj = DotDotDot -> new; $obj . method (1, 2, 3); __END__ method: 1 2 3` [download] You may have to fiddle a bit to get inheritance working properly though. Abigail	[reply] [d/l]

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Re: Overloading operators: -> to .
by Abigail-II (Bishop) on Sep 26, 2003 at 08:55 UTC

You may not be able to pass arguments to your methods, since '.' only takes two arguments.

Oh, sure you can. You just have to use a trick:

#!/usr/bin/perl
    
use strict;
no warnings;
 
package UNIVERSAL;

sub AUTOLOAD {
    my $method = $UNIVERSAL::AUTOLOAD;
    $method =~ s/.*:://;   
    return if $method eq "DESTROY";
    [$method => @_];
}
 
 
package DotDotDot;
    
use overload "." => \&dot;
 
sub new {
    bless [] => shift;
}

sub method {
    my $self = shift;
    print "method: @_\n";
}

sub dot {
    my $self            = shift;
    my ($method, @args) = @{+shift};
    $self -> $method (@args);
}
 
 
package main;
    
my $obj = DotDotDot -> new;
 
$obj . method (1, 2, 3);
    
__END__
method: 1 2 3
[download]

You may have to fiddle a bit to get inheritance working properly though.

Abigail

[reply]
[d/l]