Re: RFC 39 (v3) Perl should have a print operator

[Tom Christiansen]

>On Tue, 05 Sep 2000 18:37:11 -0600, Tom Christiansen wrote:

>>Those are not the semantics of print.   It returns true (1) if successf<SNIP>
>>false (undef) otherwise.  You cannot change that.  If I write print "0", it
>>bloody well shan't be returning false.

>Oh, why not? Does anybody actually *ever* check the return value of
>print? 

Yes.

> I think it's not as if we'd break a lot of code.

Don't worry, Mercutio, 'tis but a small wound.

>Problem is: if you need defined() to see if the print was succesful, you

defined() is superstition.  I said true and false.  If I say true,
I don't want you testing against 1.  If I say false, I don't want
you testing definedness.  Most tests like this should be true or
false.  

>cannot return what was printed as well. It's one thing or the other. So
>you cannot have it both ways.

I don't *WANT* it to return what it alleges to have printed.  That's
stupid, since I can always get that myself.  I don't need it to
tell me this!

--tom