This is fixed in Perl 6, not with generics, but with multiple dispatch. The prejudice of == toward numerics and eq toward strings is then merely the behavior of the default function that is invoked if a more specific type does not define a more specific behavior. (Of course, generics can help with defining a set of related functions for a new type.) And, of course, you also handle mixed types with multiple dispatch, since that's what it was invented for in the first place.

In reply to Re^3: I think Perl ruined me as a programmer by TimToady
in thread I think Perl ruined me as a programmer by Petras

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