Re^6: use feature 'postderef'; # Postfix Dereference Syntax is coming in 5.20 (modulo)

[shmem]

So, clearly, we need to drop the % (modulo) operator since we all know that % is supposed to be a sigil, and we mustn't blur the lines between sigils and operators. Same goes for & and *, by the way. ** looks like a glob named '*' so certainly must not be used as an operator. %= looks like a special hash.

Actually, %= is a global hash. It is also the modulo-assignment operator.

 > say '%= = 0..9; $k = %=; $k %= %=;'
Argument "4/8" isn't numeric in modulus (%)
Argument "4/8" isn't numeric in modulus (%)
0

I find ->@* much less worrying than the above as the required prefix (->) is so much more explicit and visible. I'm not sure how I'd feel about the -> being optional in some cases (maybe it already is?).

Excellent example. Any variable =~ /^\Q$@%\E\W/ is, by convention, a special variable, and those that happen to be plain vanilla scalars, arrays or hashes currently, are special variable candidates as long as I know Perl books; and those should not be used as variables because:

• no guarantee exists that those will not have a special meaning in a future release of perl
• they look special and may be confused with operators and are confusing as part of their specialness

So - no, we need not drop the modulo operator - me must not use "%=" as a hash! And this

$\ = "\n";
*{'@*'} = sub { @{$_[0]} };
bless my $ref = [ qw(foo bar baz) ];

$method = '@*';

print for $ref->$method;
__END__
foo
bar
baz

while it works without use feature 'postderef', is plain weird - implementing the content of $method as a literal not less so.

And the mentioned part of demerphq's argument that you linked to:

    my @things= $foo->@*;

    So, now, the $ no longer can be relied to refer to a "scalar", it 
+might be a scalar, it might not.

Complains about a guarantee that already isn't assured:

my @things = $scalar->fetch_all_the_things();

so I find that argument quite unconvincing.

Come on, $scalar->fetch_all_the_things(); is a method call, and objects are just references held in scalars, just like scalar, hash and array references. But your example brings up my next objection: $ref->@* looks like $ref being an object. Is it? should it be? In my humble opinion: no. There's already enough overhead in each perl run.
Are we going in that direction, making everything into objects?