Ingo Blechschmidt writes:
> that's really convenient, but what will the following code do?
> my $x = (a => 42); # $x is a Pair.
> $x = 13; # Is $x now the Pair (a => 13) or
> # the Int 13?
It's the Int 13. Your example looks a lot like this one:
my $x = [ 1, 2, 3 ];
$x = 13;
And you could say that is an error because:
[ 1, 2, 3 ] = 13;
Is an error, but you'd be wrong. You see, in your example, the pair is
not "functioning as an lvalue". The variable is the thing that is the
lvalue, not the pair.
I belive you could get the pair as an lvalue if you did:
my (Pair $x) := (a => 42);
$x = 13;
Because the variable x is now *fundamentally* a pair; it has no
container, so to speak. But it would die, because you're trying to
change a constant value.
Luke
