Re: RFC 76 (v1) Builtin: reduce

[Jarkko Hietaniemi]

On Tue, Aug 15, 2000 at 11:31:50AM -0500, Adam Krolnik wrote:
> 
> 
> Following the lead of the sort operator, it would be a little
> simpler to see reduce expressions use $a and $b instead of
> $_[0], $_[1].

The $a and $b of the sort comparator were A Bad Idea to begin with.
There's nothing wrong with using the standard @_.  The $a and $b just
introduce yet another special case, which among other things makes it
very hard to warn about dubious uses of users' variables named $a or $b.
(Yes, there is a small aesthetic edge in using $a vs $_[0], but I still
consider the $ and $b to be warts.)

-- 
$jhi++; # http://www.iki.fi/jhi/
        # There is this special biologist word we use for 'stable'.
        # It is 'dead'. -- Jack Cohen