Re^3: getting rid of special features

[CountZero]

in reply to Re^2: getting rid of special features
in thread getting rid of costly special features

actually I don't wanna get rid of the feature but of the syntax. better something like strinc() which does the same.

I find that a very PHP-like suggestion. Far easier to remember the different effects of ++ for strings and numerals, rather than remembering a different function and again another one for the pre-increment. We don't need different functions and operators for all different use-cases like PHP does.

[LanX]

My point is the huffman-coding principle.

Incrementing numeric indices happens maybe 1_000 or even 1_000_000 times more often than incrementing strings. So for integers this operator has to be short.

But the effort to learn and maintain string_increment with a core operator like ++ is far less economic.

For that reason I agree that strinc() (or whatever notation suits the most) would pollute the namespace like in PHP, so it should be outsourced to a pragma or module.

The inverse approach would be the 'no feature qwinc' I proposed, forcing ++ to croak on strings and allowing full backwards compatibility.

Furthermore allowing optimizations within Perl and less headaches and far more performance when translating to other VMs.

[Anonymous Monk]

Furthermore allowing optimizations within Perl and less headaches and far more performance when translating to other VMs.

Sure, we all like pipe dreams :)