I've been thinking about this problem which comes up in my code a lot:
@sorted = sort { $^a.foo('bar').compute <=> $^b.foo('bar').compute }
@unsorted;
Often the expressions on each side are even longer than that. But one
thing remains: both sides are exactly the same, substitute a $^b for a
$^a.
I can see a couple less-than-desirable ways around this redundancy:
@sorted = sort { infix:<=>( *($^a, $^b)Â.foo('bar').compute ) }
@unsorted;
Which doesn't work if .compute returns a list... not to mention its
horrible ugliness. Another is to define a variant of sort (haven't had
much practice with A6 material recently; here we go!):
multi sub sort (&block($) = { $_ } : [EMAIL PROTECTED]) {
sort { block($^a) cmp block($^b) } @data;
}
@sorted = sort { .foo('bar').compute } @unsorted;
Which has the disadvantage of forcing you to use C<cmp> and forcing an
ascending sort.
Any other ideas? Is a more general solution necessary?
Luke
