I've often felt that base manipulation was one of perl's shortcomings -- not because it can't do it just because it's difficult and, as you point out, the functions work in reverse.

I don't want to see your magic function because we'd then have: 

dec(998)  == 998
dec(999)  == 999
dec(1000) ==   8
dec(1001) ==   9
dec(1002) == 514

[download]
which I'm sure you'll agree is just wrong.

I'd prefer that the existing functions did what they appear to do: hex() returns a hexidecimal representation of the input data and oct() returns an octal representation. Similarly a bin() function should return a binary representation.

As changing now would be an absolute backward-compatability nightmare, I'd suggest using the full names for decimal-to-base-n conversion: hexidecimal(255) eq 'FF'.

We might also include generic base manipulator, but it's probably more a loadable (module) function (the functionality below probably already exists in a module, I haven't checked): 

# changebase($number, $from[, $to]);

print changebase(255, 10, 16);
# FF
print changebase(0xFF, 16, 10);
# 255
print changebase('FF', 16);  # assume change to base 10 when no 'to' i
+s supplied
# 255
print changebase('FF', 16, 2);
# 11111111

[download]
An OO module could even be more transparent: 
use Base;
$hex = new Base 16 => 'FF';
print $hex;            # Stringify
# FF
print $hex->binary;    # Return value only ($hex->binary is an alias f
+or $hex->base 2)
# 11111111
print $hex;
# FF
print $hex->to_binary; # Change value
# 11111111
print $hex;
# 11111111

[download]
After all that, my main point is that I absolutely agree that those two functions are completely non-intuitive.
"Get real! This is a discussion group, not a helpdesk. You post something, we discuss its implications. If the discussion happens to answer a question you've asked, that's incidental." -- nobull@mail.com in clpm

In reply to Re: A philosophical pondering concerning hexes by BigLug
in thread A philosophical pondering concerning hexes by Llew_Llaw_Gyffes

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.