Having cut my teeth on C back in the late 70's, I think the "old-timers" is probably a closer fit to me, than "young whipper-snapper", but both points taken:)

Codifying the operators into subs like 'min' and 'max' works where the semantics of the operation fits the names, which isn't always the case, but there are a couple of problems with that.

You need a 'min_str', min_str_i' and 'min_num' to really cover all bases.

The cost of building stack frames for an operation where all the information the compiler needs to make the assignment is available right there in the expression seems proflagate.

Were it possible for the compiler to do sub-expression elimination that might eleviate some of the problem, but then you need to make special cases for the possibility that the double side effect is actually what the programmer intended (as horrendous doing so would be:), I would stil have to type/maintain both instances of both operands though. Not onnerous, but another source of potential bugs.

The P6 macro facility might address some of the issues, but the double-side-effects problem of C macro fame would probably persist. I haven't gleaned enough information on the P6 object mechanisms yet to work out whether it is possible to add operators/methods to the base 'types'.

Maybe TheDamian or Elian know?

Examine what is said, not who speaks.
"Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." -Richard Buckminster Fuller

In reply to Re: Re: A set of new operators. In keeping with the design of Perl? by BrowserUk
in thread A set of new operators. In keeping with the design of Perl? by BrowserUk

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