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Postings from February 2017
[Top-posted] I basically agree with Karl and Kent on this. Having a synonym allows people to use it knowingly, even in only that narrow use-case. Following Kent's reasoning, we should make it absolutely clear through the documentation which function you should use when. is_utf8() can be documented succinctly as "Synonym to is_upgraded()" (or whatever we call it). I explicitly meant "synonym to <new name>" to make sure the new name stands out and not the old name. That way you have a clear function (is_upgraded() or whatever) that clearly states when you want to use it, but you could also find is_utf8() if you look for it. On 02/19/2017 07:51 PM, Kent Fredric wrote: > On 20 February 2017 at 07:41, Father Chrysostomos <sprout@cpan.org> wrote: >> I do not. The main reasons for using the function are to work around >> problems with buggy XS modules. Adding a synonym for a function that >> most correct code should not be using seems like the wrong direction >> to be going in. > A better direction IMHO would be: > > 1. Remove is_utf8 from utf8.pm's synopsis > 2. Make it *much* clearer in utf8.pm that is_utf8 is not something > people should use, because the current description doesn't give any > direction in this regard: > > * "$flag = utf8::is_utf8($string)" > > (Since Perl 5.8.1) Test whether $string is marked internally as > encoded in UTF-8. Functionally the same as "Encode::is_utf8()". > > And the followed ref says: > > is_utf8 > is_utf8(STRING [, CHECK]) > > [INTERNAL] Tests whether the UTF8 flag is turned on in the STRING. If > CHECK is true, also checks whether STRING contains well-formed UTF-8. > Returns true if successful, false otherwise. > > As of Perl 5.8.1, utf8 also has the "utf8::is_utf8" function. > > Doesn't really convey any sort of clarity here as to where and when it > makes sense to use, or stipulate clearly that typical expectations of > what this does is wrong. > > Can't expect people to do the right thing if even the documentation > doesn't help. > >Thread Previous