> -----Original Message----- > From: Smylers [mailto:smyl...@stripey.com] > Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2011 2:20 AM > To: perl6-language@perl.org > Subject: Re: Underscores v Hyphens (Was: [perl6/specs] a7cfe0: [S32] backtraces > overhaul) > > Moritz Lenz writes: > > > Am 23.08.2011 10:46, schrieb Damian Conway: > > > > > ... why hidden_from_backtrace instead of hidden-from-backtrace? > > > > ... low-level things are spelled with underscores, while we reserve > > the minus character for user-space code. > > So the idea is that if Perl 6 has an identifier zapeth_clunk itself that > leaves zapeth-clunk free to be used by developers to mean something > else? > > Is that something we want to enable? > > Code with identifiers that differ only in word separators sounds like it > would be most confusing to maintain. Are there specific circumstances in > which it would be useful? [snip]
This feature came about (along with Larry's generalization to include "'"s) in response to a question I posed back around 2008 (IIRC) about the feasibility of a P6 module to allow hyphens in identifiers. (BTW, I frequently mix hyphens with underscores to make space-free file names with hyphenated dates, hyphenated words, and so on. But I wouldn't want hyphens and underscores treated as equivalent, just as I wouldn't want upper and lowercase letters treated as equivalent. Then again, "use strict;" is my friend, so I don't anticipate non-trivial problems with such sorts non-equivalences. YMMV.) Here is a reply of mine to an old thread on this topic; others have independently expressed somewhat similar sentiments. =================================================================== [Sun 4/11/2010 12:45 AM] > From: Mark J. Reed [mailto:markjr...@gmail.com] [...] > Perl borrows vocabulary almost exclusively from English, but it is > not English, and its conventions are not those of English. (And the > conventions around hyphens that people are citing are quite specifically > those of standard written English; other writing systems, even those using > the same alphabet and mostly the same punctuation, have different rules). Consider s/English/Linux/ for example. :-) One consideration leading up to allowing "-" in P6 identifiers (initially in the context of an optional syntax-tweaking module) involved compatibility with fairly common usage in {directory and file} names (where spaces are avoided for cross-platform reasons). I've always thought {Lisp variable names and Unix/Linux file names} with hyphens (versus underscores) were {more readable and substantially easier to type (during long typing sessions)}. http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.language/browse_thread/thread/1625 baa7eead0d71/ http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.compiler/browse_thread/thread/e6cc 5dc9360ada36/c59f2fb1f49b80f5?lnk=gst&q=r28689#c59f2fb1f49b80f5 > I would personally like to see hyphens used as the standard word separator, > with underscores available for exceptions - say, naming a Perl interface > method exactly the same as the underlying C function it provides access to. [...] ++! =================================================================== Best Regards, Conrad Conrad Schneiker www.AthenaLab.com
