Re^2: Bad news for IO::Handle magic (SWYM or sink)

Hi tye, good points, but I have a question about this remark:

Don't use single-word, all-lower-case subroutine names. If you do, then you can reduce your risk by either calling them like &mysub(...) or by putting them into a module (and then import them, use the full name with package name in front, or use OO).

I can see there is a potential problem in that calling single word subroutines without parentheses can be confusing to the parser, but what's the difference in this regard between all-lower-case subroutines and (for example) CamelCase subroutines? Or are you warning against redefining future keywords/build-ins?

Joost.

"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

Comment on Re^2: Bad news for IO::Handle magic (SWYM or sink)

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Re^3: Bad news for IO::Handle magic (lowercase subs) by tye (Sage) on Jul 07, 2004 at 23:05 UTC
`#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; # For debugging: sub dump { my( $name, $ref ) = @_; require Data::Dumper; my $dumper = Data::Dumper->new( [$ref], [$name] ); $dumper->Indent(1)->Useqq(1)->Terse(1); print STDERR $dumper->Dump(); } my $foo = "Test value"; dump( foo => $foo ); # Should instead used: #&dump( foo => $foo ); # ...` [download] produces: `abnormal program termination` [download] Helpful, isn't it? I suspect quite a few people don't immediately see what the problem is. I also suspect that no small number of people could waste quite a bit of time trying to figure this problem out before the solution comes to them and they snack themselves in the forehead. Adding the `&` or renaming the sub to debugDump or moving the sub to a module will solve the problem. The problem is that dump is a built-in. I don't care to memorize the entire list of Perl built-ins nor to put my code at risk when new built-ins are added (rarely). - tye	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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Re^3: Bad news for IO::Handle magic (lowercase subs)
by tye (Sage) on Jul 07, 2004 at 23:05 UTC

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

# For debugging:
sub dump {
    my( $name, $ref ) = @_;
    require Data::Dumper;
    my $dumper = Data::Dumper->new( [$ref], [$name] );
    $dumper->Indent(1)->Useqq(1)->Terse(1);
    print STDERR $dumper->Dump();
}

my $foo = "Test value";
dump( foo => $foo );
# Should instead used:
#&dump( foo => $foo );
# ...
[download]

produces:

abnormal program termination
[download]

Helpful, isn't it? I suspect quite a few people don't immediately see what the problem is. I also suspect that no small number of people could waste quite a bit of time trying to figure this problem out before the solution comes to them and they snack themselves in the forehead.

Adding the & or renaming the sub to debugDump or moving the sub to a module will solve the problem.

The problem is that dump is a built-in. I don't care to memorize the entire list of Perl built-ins nor to put my code at risk when new built-ins are added (rarely).

- tye

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]