If someone wants to make the final word on what the behavior should be
I can go ahead and implement it.
On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 11:41 PM, Jonathan Scott Duff
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 9:38 AM, TSa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>> HaloO,
>> Moritz Lenz wrote:
>>
>>> In Perl 5 a negative limit means "unlimited", which we don't have to do
>>> because we have the Whatever star.
>>>
>>
>> I like the notion of negative numbers as the other end of infinity.
>> Where infinity here is the length of the split list which can be
>> infinite if split is called on a file handle. So a negative number
>> could be the number of splits to skip from the front of the list.
>> And limits of the form '*-5' would deliver the five last splits.
>>
>
> As another data point, this is the first thing I thought of when I read the
> email regarding negative limits. But then I thought "we're trying to get
> away from so much implicit magic". And I'm not sure the failure mode is loud
> enough when the skip-from-the-front semantics /aren't/ what you want (e.g.,
> when the limit parameter is variable-ish)
>
>
> A limit of 0 is basically ignored.
>>
>> Here are a few solution I could think of
>> 1) A limit of 0 returns the empty list (you want zero items, you get them)
>>
>
> I think this is a nice degenerate case.
>>
>
> Me too.
>
>
> 2) A limit of 0 fail()s
>>
>
> This is a bit too drastic.
>
>
> Indeed.
>
>
>
> 3) non-positive $limit arguments are rejected by the signature (Int
>> where { $_ > 0 })
>>
>
> I think that documents and enforces the common case best. But I would
>> include zero and use a name like UInt that has other uses as well. Are
>> there pragmas that turn signature failures into undef return values?
>>
>>
>> Regards, TSa.
>> --
>>
>> "The unavoidable price of reliability is simplicity" -- C.A.R. Hoare
>> "Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it." -- A.J. Perlis
>> 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ... = -1/12 -- Srinivasa Ramanujan
>>
>
>
> my two cents,
>
> -Scott
>
> --
> Jonathan Scott Duff
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
