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Re: The Santa Claus Golf Apocalypse

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From:
Bernie Cosell
Date:
December 5, 2001 05:32
Subject:
Re: The Santa Claus Golf Apocalypse
Message ID:
3C0DDBE0.3105.299A9AB@localhost
On 5 Dec 2001, at 14:09, Eugene van der Pijll wrote:

> Bernie Cosell schreef op 05 december 2001:
> > Meta-question: since Perl is content to try to *call* '&main::;' is there
> > some trickery to *DEFINE* such a subroutine?  For example, trying:
> >    main:: { die; }
> > gets you what I would have expected in the '..&' case: a syntax error for a 
> > missing subroutine name.
> 
> perl -e'*;=sub {1}; print &;'

good heavens.. the actual subroutine name is semi-colon??  So the name isn't 
missing and isn't null, but is ';'.  I'm not sure that that doesn't make it 
MORE confusing to me --- Are there other punctuation marks that work in that 
context??

Three questions:
1) is semicolon the ONLY puncuation mark that has this odd special-dispensation?
2) WHY does perl allow this --- it still seems like a slam-dunk syntax error 
situation to me
3) who *discovered* this anomaly? [how does someone even think to TRY something 
bizarre like this.....]

I'm not much of a golf fan but I've certainly learned interesting/amazing 
things about Perl from the 'holes'.

  /bernie\

-- 
Bernie Cosell                     Fantasy Farm Fibers
mailto:bernie@fantasyfarm.com     Pearisburg, VA
    -->  Too many people, too few sheep  <--          

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