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Re: [perl #128241] Deprecate /$empty_string/

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From:
Abigail
Date:
May 27, 2016 10:48
Subject:
Re: [perl #128241] Deprecate /$empty_string/
Message ID:
20160527105022.GE32032@almanda.fritz.box
On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 09:43:30AM +0100, Smylers wrote:
> Aristotle Pagaltzis writes:
> 
> > Personally:
> > 
> > • I agree /$empty/ should be deprecated.
> > 
> > • I oppose changing its behaviour without a deprecation cycle.
> 
> “Warning: We've found a bug in your code. Please fix it now, otherwise a
> future version of Perl will automatically fix it for you.”
> 
> >   At that point, the special case is so well circumscribed that I see
> >   no real gain in excising [use of literal //] entirely, however
> >   ancient-Unix-warty it may be.
> 
> Would it have advantages for users of the identically spelt //
> defined-or operator? Specifically, are there circumstances where
> somebody who makes a mistake while trying to use defined-or could get an
> error message but at the moment gets mysterious repeat-match behaviour?
> Or does get an error message, but a suboptimal one?


That seems unlikely. I don't see any obvious way to get Perl confuse a
binary operator with a term. Perhaps sometime, a single person has once
written a program intending to use // where Perl is using repeat-match
and he/she never noticed this when running the program. And while he/she
may benefit if he/she gets to upgrade the perl used, it seems to far
fetched to count as an argument to eliminate the use of repeat-match.



Abigail

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