# Perl 6 :)

sub restart_server (Str +$host, Int +$port, Int +$timeout) {
  ...;
}

# Call using
restart_server host => "...", port => ..., timeout => ...;
# or
restart_server :host«...», :port(...), :timeout(...);
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By just adding a + in front of the variable name you can (actually have to) pass this parameter named.

I noticed, in Perl 5, that you often have only a little small function taking only one parameter:

# Perl 5
sub foo {
  my $a = shift;
  ...;
}
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Later on, you see the need to add a second positional parameter. And maybe your small function won't stop growing and you require a third and fourth parameter, too.

sub foo {
  my ($a, $b, $c, $d) = @_;
  ...;
}
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You think, "I should use named paramaters here", but you (read: I) are probably too lazy to rewrite foo to:

sub foo {
  my %args = @_;
  my ($a, $b, $c, $d) = @args{qw( a b c d )};
  # Or:
  my ($a, $b, $c, $d) = @{{@_}}{qw( a b c d )};
  ...;
}
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Instead, you keep your positional argument calling (bad). But in Perl 6, all you'll have to do is to add one small little +, and (of course) you won't have to extract the parameters out of @_ yourself! And you get compile-time checking, too :)