http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=1020642


in reply to Re: Use reference for functions in functions
in thread Use reference for functions in functions

Thanks for the pointer to the article. I'll read it and learn how to use prototyping correctly. I didn't choose IT as a profession just to skip everything I don't know how to do or use, but to learn new things. As of now, prototyping is going to be one of the latter.

When doing something, it's worth doing it right.
If it's not worth doing it right, it's not worth doing at all.

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Re^3: Use reference for functions in functions
by Mr. Muskrat (Canon) on Feb 26, 2013 at 18:06 UTC

    The biggest thing to remember about prototypes is that you don't typically need them.

      I beg to differ. I found them very useful yesterday when I was rewriting a function from having 2 arguments to having 3. (and saving some lookups on the way) With proptotyping I was able to differentiate between both functions and have the code still functioning for my coworkers while I was optimizing the function. (and after rewrinting all function calls drop the old 2 argument sub)

      When you want to have the same function react differently based on the amount of arguments, by example while rewriting the function, it's useful. (unless you start shipping hashes/arrays and stuff like that to functions, then it gets interesting and to be honest a lot more fun)

        When you want to have the same function react differently based on the amount of arguments...

        If you were talking about C++ code, I'd understand perfectly what you were talking about: function overloading based on differing function signatures (prototypes). As you are talking about Perl code, I don't. I still imagine two functions  F with different prototypes that are differentially invoked based on differing argument lists, and that doesn't work in Perl.

        Can you give a short, standalone, runnable example of what you were doing?