> It's also worth noting that AFAIK eof is the only function in Perl that behaves this way... the exception that confirms the rule ;-)

well yes, each magic exception is different, look at chop (LIST) , which has no prototype.

> look at threads like Prototype like sort()?

But sort has no prototype, that's my point.

> All of eof's syntax can be replicated, but not its functionality.

well your link to tie made me thinking ...

I remember that overriding say or print was only possible by tieing the connected file-handles, so maybe eof IS fully overridable in the end, thanks to that extra magic.

I'll try tomorrow.

> but I think you should cut the authors some slack :-)

One of the reasons why Perl is now so unpopular in academia are surprising and frustrating exceptions. Clarifying and rectifying such things would help to make Perl more orthogonal and acceptable.

Cheers Rolf
(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery

In reply to Re^4: Why does eof have a prototype? by LanX
in thread Why does eof have a prototype? by LanX

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.