This and other RFCs are available on the web at http://dev.perl.org/rfc/ =head1 TITLE Proposal to rename C<import> and C<unimport> =head1 VERSION Maintainer: Jonathan Scott Duff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 8 Aug 2000 Last-Modified: 1 Sep 2000 Mailing List: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Version: 3 Number: 74 Status: Developing =head1 ABSTRACT C<import()> and C<unimport> should be C<IMPORT> and C<UNIMPORT> respectively, in keeping with all of the other special-to-Perl names. =head1 DESCRIPTION The Perl documentation says that use Module LIST; is equivalent to BEGIN { require Module; import Module LIST; } so that C<use Module LIST> automatically calls the C<import> routine for that module if it exists. Thus C<import> is a routine that has special meaning to Perl. This RFC proposes that C<import> and C<unimport> be renamed to C<IMPORT> and C<UNIMPORT> respectively. This would be consistent with the naming of all other subroutines that are special to Perl. Nathan Wiger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> suggests that we create an C<import> keyword (and I assume an C<unimport> keyword as well) that calls C<import Module LIST>. The author of this RFC would rather not add new keywords. However, I see no reason why the B<module> author should not provide an C<import()> routine that is simply an alias for C<IMPORT()>. =head1 IMPLEMENTATION Just change the names! =head1 MIGRATION The Perl5 -> Perl6 translator should provide a C<import> alias for the C<IMPORT> routine to ease migration. Likewise for C<unimport>. =head1 REFERENCES Perl 5.6.0 documentation RFC 59: Proposal to utilize C<*> as the prefix to magic subroutines Email from Nathan Wiger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> that went to perl6-language but I can't find at www.mail-archive.com :-(
