Re: RFC 73 (v1) All Perl core functions should return ob

[Damian Conway]

   > What is:
   > 
   >   $x = date();
   > 
   > going to return?

Probably the current scalar context result (i.e. a date string)
   
   > An object that has many different -ify methods:
   >   stringify
   >   numify
   >   hashify
   >   listify
   >   objectify (!)

Possible, but blech.

   > How then does this work?
   > 
   >   somesub( date() );

Usually list context, so usually returns list.


   > Depends on the prototype, we could determine it before the subroutine
   > call.  Might also be able to lazily evaluate the argument list for
   > non-prototyped lists.  If it says:
   > 
   >   sub somesub {
   >     my @foo = @_;
   >   }
   > 
   > then listify the object.

Urgh. If you want lazy eval, say so explicitly:

      sub somesub (?@) {
        my @foo = @_;
      }

   > But that way lies casts so you can say that you want the first thing
   > from date()'s list value ....  I hate casts.  I would trust mjd to
   > tell me that it could be done right, but until he says that, I'm
   > against anything that requires casting.

I'll be against casts *even* if MJD blesses them.
I REALLY hate casts.

Damian