"Brent Dax" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
> # I was wondering how perl6 would stringify (as in Data::Dumper):
>
> As Dan said, that's serialization. I don't know if Perl will support
> that built-in. But if it does...
>
> # 1) objects with 'my' and 'our' variables
>
> Those would have to be dumped from the pads or stashes. I don't think
> there's any way around that.
The semantics of this are unclear. Say I have (sorry if the syntax is
wrong)
{
my $t;
my ($x,$y) = (-> { ++$t }, -> { $t-- });
}
(The intent is I can use C<$x.()> and C<$y.()> to count backwards and
forwards).
Now, if I say C<print FH serialize($x,$y)> (assume suitable encoding,
delimiting, etc.; I'm not asking about those), I'd expect to get a
copy of C<$x> and C<$y>, and they should share the same C<$t>. Right?
What does the list C<($x.serialize(), $y.serialize)> give me? Given
that there's no way to know that both serializations will end up going
to the same file, they have to give me the equivalent of
{
my $t;
my $x = -> { ++$t };
}
{
my $t;
my $y = -> { $t-- };
}
So we've broken the meaning of the code (and serialization can't just
be a UNIVERSAL method, we have to be able to call it as a function on
a list). Is this a Good Thing? (Can we Do Better???)
OK, so now say I'm reading the original (C<serialize($x,$y)>). And I
do it twice. Following the previous logic, I get 2 copies of C<$t>,
one for each reading. This might make sense, or it might not.
How do I read "half" of C<serialize($x,$y)>? (That is, can I get just
C<$x>?) The easy answer is to say I can't. This creates an
uncomfortable situation. Every time I want to serialize a bunch of
closures, I have to serialize all of them in one go. And I have to
deserialize them all if I want to access any bit of them. What do I
do if I have 10_000 copies of some huge bunch, and I want to access
just one bit of it? Seems like I have to deserialize everything --
even though I<for this case> we could be doing a lot better!
I guess I just don't understand how serializing closures is supposed
to work.
[...]
--
Ariel Scolnicov |http://3w.compugen.co.il/~ariels
Compugen Ltd. |[EMAIL PROTECTED] "Sometimes people write an
72 Pinhas Rosen St. |Tel: +972-3-7658117 accidental haiku. Damn!
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