Re^2: Code Maintainability

in reply to Re: Code Maintainability
in thread Code Maintainability

I believe your second example (which is always the way i call methods and subs now) is something that is almost exclusive* to Perl because of the concept of lists. PHP can't even do this "out of the box" like Perl can, observe:

my $circle = Circle->new(
    array(
        radius     => 4.5,
        origin     => array( 2.3, 2.2 ),
        visibility => 1
    )
);
[download]

That's right ... PHP methods do not accept a list of arguments -- you have to make your array and pass it to your method. Now, you can use named args in PHP but they are still positional, meaning that you can't pass the args in an arbitrary order. In Java you would need to first instantiate a new Hash object, fill in its values and then pass that to your object's constructor. Yuck!

All of this just reinforces my belief that 9 out of 10 Perl haters only hate Perl because they just don't get it. I myself am no fan of Perl 6, but it is good to hear that named parameters are now default.

*I haven't bothered to read up on it, but i'll wager $50 that Ruby and Python can handle this.

UPDATE: Duh! Lisp! Thanks for setting me straight Porculus. :)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

Comment on Re^2: Code Maintainability Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^3: Code Maintainability by Porculus (Hermit) on Dec 04, 2008 at 21:16 UTC
It's far from exclusive to Perl. You're right that Python can handle it; I don't know about Ruby, but there are plenty of other languages that do, the granddaddy of them all being Lisp. It doesn't require that things be based on lists of arguments, of course, though it helps (that's the way Lisp does it!), and it doesn't even require a dynamic language. For example, the completely static language O'Caml provides named arguments as a syntactic feature, with compile-time checking etc.	[reply]
Re^4: Code Maintainability by holli (Abbot) on Dec 05, 2008 at 08:18 UTC
For example, the completely static language O'Caml provides named arguments as a syntactic feature, with compile-time checking etc. Visual Basic too. /me hides holli, /regexed monk/	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Code Maintainability by mr_mischief (Monsignor) on Dec 05, 2008 at 23:21 UTC
Ada, PL/SQL, PowerShell, Modula 3, and Fortran 90 allow named parameters in arbitrary order, too. I'm sure there are more out there.	[reply]

In Section Meditations