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Why does Perl have typeglobs? Yes, I understand that they are symbol table entries, but why can they hold several completely unrelated things - scalars, arrays, filehandles?

Because they are symbol table entries ... the symbol table, where completely unrelated things (variables) are held

If they weren't in the symbol table, they would be in the lexical pad (symbol table)

Is there some technical reason for that?

Yes, its drawn that way

Or was that just Larry's idea?

Larry , like all great inventors, borrowed lots of good ideas, and then he drawn-ed it

So, yeah, why are typeglobs the way they are?

Because

If they weren't the way they are, what way would they be?

SCALAR_table
ARRAY_table
HASH_table
CODE_table
IO_table
FORMAT_table
[download]

Hmm, six individual variables tables, versus one umbrella table, hmmm

Why does perl have sigils to begin with? Or compact syntax for patter matching?

In reply to Re: Why does Perl have typeglobs? by Anonymous Monk
in thread Why does Perl have typeglobs? by Anonymous Monk

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