[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Nathan Torkington) wrote on 15.08.00 in
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> * you misunderstand the purpose of $ and @, which is to indicate
> singular vs plural.
Yes. That's one of the things that's wrong with it - maybe the biggest of
all.
It's one of the things that require constant attention to get right for
me. It's *not* natural.
Yes, singular and plural per se are natural. But an array element *is not*
singular to an array.
Look at that sentence. It contains two singulars: an array, and an array
element. There's no plural in there.
Perl "plural" is a very different concept from natural language plural,
and *that* is why it's bad.
$ vs. @ is not really about singular or plural. It's about context
dependency.
And context dependency is bad for people.
There is a reason that no language after Algol68 used a context dependant
grammar.
There is a reason that nearly all modern computer languages don't make
expression evaluation dependant on expression context.
The reason is *not* that this is easier for computers. It is easier, sure,
but not all that much.
But it is *a lot* easier for humans.
A rose is a rose is a rose. Human minds really don't like context
dependancy.
MfG Kai
