Author: larry
Date: Thu Sep 14 09:28:33 2006
New Revision: 11980
Modified:
doc/trunk/design/syn/S12.pod
Log:
Added .'foo' and ."bar" forms to address various concerns of ajs++ and #perl6++
Modified: doc/trunk/design/syn/S12.pod
==============================================================================
--- doc/trunk/design/syn/S12.pod (original)
+++ doc/trunk/design/syn/S12.pod Thu Sep 14 09:28:33 2006
@@ -12,9 +12,9 @@
Maintainer: Larry Wall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 27 Oct 2004
- Last Modified: 13 Sept 2006
+ Last Modified: 14 Sept 2006
Number: 12
- Version: 24
+ Version: 25
=head1 Overview
@@ -217,6 +217,20 @@
$obj.$methodname(1,2,3)
+The method name may also be quoted with either single or double quotes:
+
+ $obj."$methodname"(1,2,3) # same as previous
+ $obj.'$methodname'(1,2,3) # call method with $ in name!
+
+The latter is especially useful for postfix forms that might be confusing
+to the lexer or to the human reader
+
+ $filename.'-e' # same as -e $filename.
+ .'-e' # same as -e $_
+
+(The C<q> forms of quoting are not allowed, however, since they'd be
+taken as ordinary method names.)
+
You must use a special syntax to call a private method:
$mybrain!think($pinky)
@@ -311,7 +325,9 @@
if $scalar.VAR.readonly {...}
-(But since it's a macro, C<VAR> is not dispatched as a real method.)
+(But since it's a macro, C<VAR> is not dispatched as a real method.
+To dispatch to a real C<.VAR> method use the indirect C<$obj."VAR">
+form.)
You can also get at the container through the appropriate symbol table:
@@ -558,6 +574,11 @@
$object.*meth(@args) # calls all methods (0 or more)
$object.+meth(@args) # calls all methods (1 or more)
+The method name may be quoted when disambiguation is needed:
+
+ $object."+meth"(@args)
+ $object.'VAR'(@args)
+
Any method can defer to the next candidate method in the list by
saying C<next METHOD>. Any method can stop the progression by saying
C<last METHOD>. The order and selection of the candidates may be
@@ -1512,6 +1533,22 @@
$obj.WHAT # method form of P5's ref
WHAT $obj # unary form of P5's ref
+These are all actually macros, not true operators or methods. If you get
+a foreign object from another language and need to call its C<.WHERE> method,
+you can say:
+
+ $obj."WHERE"
+
+And if you don't know the method name in advance, you'd be using the
+variable form anyway:
+
+ $obj.$somemeth
+
+which also bypasses the macros.
+
+For now Perl 6 reserves the right to change how all these macros and the
+corresponding C<^> forms are defined in terms of each other.
+
In general, use of these in ordinary code should be a red flag that
Something Very Strange is going on. (Hence the allcaps.) Most code
should use Perl 6's operators that make use of this information
