Re: Re: Prototypes allow overloading subs?

[BUU]

My immediate thought when you suggested the source filter module, is that it wouldnt be that hard, as you could just steal the method used by c compiler things (if i recall correctly...) that internally turn say "baz(int,int)" into "baz_int_int()", then when you do like "baz(1,1)", it knows how to pass it. The first step seems relatively simple, rewriting sub like "sub foo($,@)" into "sub foo_scalar_array", but that breaks down when you try to determine what the hell the sub is being passed. @x=(1,2); add(@x)?

[Aristotle]

Perl is just too dynamic. The biggest obstacle is that you can often not know whether you're getting a list or scalar - much like in your example. It gets a whole lot worse when you say something like add(numbers($foo)) and numbers() can return anything from one invocation to the next.

Makeshifts last the longest.