--- Abigail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Yes, you _can_ program weird functions
> > that do one thing in one context and totally difefrent things
> > in another context, but most just plain avoid it because it's
> > not intuitive.
>
> Perhaps you find it non-intuitive, but I think context sensitiveness
> is one of the key features of Perl. Perhaps *the* key feature. I
don't
> know any other language that is context sensitive. It's one of the
few
> things that makes Perl what it is.
I agree %110.
If polymorphism is a Good Thing, context sensitivity is a Good Thing.
I don't find it non-intuitive at all; on the contrary, it's what makes
Perl capable of *being* so intuitive and DWIMmy, as oppposed to more
classically designed languages with simpler structural paradigms, but
less flexibility. On top of that, most statements inherently provide
their own context, so it's an issue less often than one might think.
Remember "How to shoot yourself in the foot"? '
The line for Perl was just "BANG!"
That says a lot -- that it's very easy to shoot yourself in the foot in
Perl, for one thing -- but for another, it was the *simplest* entry in
the joke, and one of the few that succeeded in shooting a foot at all.
Yes, Perl adds cryptocontext to the list of possible evils programmers
should try to avoid, but it adds CONTEXT to the tools programmers have
in the toolbox. I think that's a great trade. =o)
=====
print "Just another Perl Hacker\n"; # edited for readability =o)
=============================================================
"There are trivial truths and there are great Truths.
The opposite of a trival truth is obviously false.
The opposite of a great Truth is also true." -- Neils Bohr
"Real friends are those whom, when you inconvenience them, are bothered less by it
than you are." -- me. =o)
And if you're interested, see my photography at http://theSilentBard.com/
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