I've asked myself that question too. OO-purist or not: why use qw// when you just want to quote one value? How many do print qw(Hello)? Not many, I'd guess. "Unnecessary" qw() seem to be most frequent where lists usually are passed, like array initializations, the vars pragma, import lists, etc, and there it's handy when you want to add something to the list. But as you say, most people do use it with the base pragma too, even though having a list of more than one element there would be the exception, not the rule. I can see a couple of possible explanations, in order of what I think is most likely:

  1. Cargo-cult. It's used in the pod for base.pm, perlboot, everyone else uses it, so people just copy it.
  2. Habit. People quite often use qw() with use() statements. I've even seen use Foo qw();.
  3. Some might have a twisted idea of what a list is. They think that you perhaps must "create" a list somehow, and since the documentation says use Module LIST then people "create" a list with qw().
Update: I don't use qw() myself when I don't plan to have more than one element in the list. If I see use Base qw(Foo) in my own code I suspect I might be planning for MI.

ihb

In reply to Re: use base 'Foo' or die! by ihb
in thread use base 'Foo' or die! by jeffa

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