This and other RFCs are available on the web at
http://dev.perl.org/rfc/
=head1 TITLE
Fix print "$r->func" and $pkg::$var precedence
=head1 VERSION
Maintainer: Nathan Wiger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 14 Aug 2000
Version: 1
Mailing List: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Number: 103
Status: Developing
=head1 ABSTRACT
Currently, attempting to use objects in a string context
yields garbage:
print "r is $r->func"; # "OBJ=HASH(0xef958)->func"
print "r is ", $r->func; # works, but clumsy
In addition, trying to dynamically assign to unnamed classes
is very difficult:
$pkg::$var = $val; # error
${"${pkg}::$var"} = $val; # works, but bleeech!
The precedence and parsing of these operators should be fixed to allow
these important operations.
=head1 DESCRIPTION
=head2 Printable objects
This should print out correctly:
$r = new Class;
print "$r->func";
This would make it consistent with hashrefs and arrayrefs, which already
work correctly in string contexts.
Note that both this RFC and RFC 49 propose changes that make an object's
debugging info hard to get to. The next version of RFC 49 will include
an operator for easily accessing that information. Please see it for
details.
=head2 Dynamic package names
Currently, assigning values to dynamically-created package names is,
frankly, and pain in the butt. Major. These should work in Perl 6:
$pkg = 'Class';
$var = 'DEBUG';
$pkg::$var = 1;
$subpkg = 'Special';
$class = $pkg . '::' . $subpkg;
require $class; # require Class::Special
Currently, the precedenence of :: vs. symbolic references does not allow
these operations.
=head1 IMPLEMENTATION
I'll leave that to the internals guys. :-)
=head1 REFERENCES
RFC 49: Objects should have builtin stringifying STRING method
Programming Perl, 2ed, for the ${"${pkg}::$var"} syntax
