http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=1038429


in reply to Thoughts on replacing -> with .

A very definite no from me too.

I agree with most points brought up above, especially the cognitive burden one and the havoc of ~= versus =~.

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Re^2: Thoughts on replacing -> with .
by Corion (Patriarch) on Jun 12, 2013 at 11:19 UTC

    Note that =~ and ~= are both valid Perl already.

      Hmm, I don’t see ~= in perlop; and ~ is the unary bitwise negation operator, so it wouldn’t make much sense to have ~=. What is it?

        It is like += and .=, which modify the left-hand side by the right hand side.

        $a += $b adds the right hand side ($b) to the left hand side, $a, and assigns the result to $a.

        $a .= $b appends $b to $a and assigns the result to $a.

        $a ~= $b xor's $b and $a and assigns the result to $a.

        As this is a relatively uncommon use, it maybe makes this interchange currently even harder to spot than later the use of =~ and ~=.