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Re: IV preservation (was Re: [PATCH 5.7.0] compiling on OS/2)

From:
Ilya Zakharevich
Date:
February 14, 2001 14:37
Subject:
Re: IV preservation (was Re: [PATCH 5.7.0] compiling on OS/2)
Message ID:
20010214173735.A11069@math.ohio-state.edu
On Wed, Feb 14, 2001 at 02:27:26PM -0600, Jarkko Hietaniemi wrote:
> > On the scale of disasters in the Perl design, IMO this is less than
> > the qu// horror, but on par with forcing h2xs to produce a
> > backwards-incompatible code, v3.4.5 thingies, or using REx-opcodes
> > which switch their unicode-face at runtime.
> 
> I won't comment on the IV/UV matters but on this I feel personally
> obliged to say something on these.  Polymorphic REx-opcodes are a necessity
> because out data is polymorphic in its Unicodeness, in compile-time
> you cannot know what the data will be.  I see no way out of that.

I explained a simple way out of it many times already: make a PMOP
have two pointers to a REx instead of one.  Switch *the whole REx at
once* instead of making a switch in each opcode individually.

Do not remember any objection from you (or anybody) on this...

> About the proposed qu//: it's not a perfect solution, but it is a
> compromise.  It gives for those of who need us the way to produce
> UTF-8: compactly and in compile-time, as opposed to pack("U", ...).

There is a mechanism for this already.  It is called overloaded
constants.

Ilya



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