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Re: Announcing Perl 7

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From:
Dave Mitchell
Date:
June 26, 2020 16:04
Subject:
Re: Announcing Perl 7
Message ID:
20200626152902.GY3265@iabyn.com
On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 05:10:57PM +0200, demerphq wrote:
> My understanding is any existing code which has "use strict;" will be
> fine as "use strict" will be the same "use perl5-semantics" or
> whatever the syntaxt will be. Thus relatively little will break.

This seems to be an important and fundamental disagreement or
misunderstanding between us, and I think it needs resolving before
anything else gets discussed.

My understanding was that, by default, perl7 will enable many of the
optional features available via 'use feature X' and/or 'use v5.32.0',
plus possibly some other stuff.

I think that this will break a *lot* of existing code and CPAN modules.
Which is at the heart of my objection.

For example, disabling indirect object syntax by default will break
all code containing

    my $foo = new Foo(...);

which is still a commonly-used idiom.

Enabling signatures by default will make it nearly impossible to portably
write code which uses subroutine prototypes. (Seriously, try the challenge
I set in my previous email).

Enabling 'use utf8' or 'feature_unicode' by default will silently change
the semantics of code.

etc etc.

-- 
Indomitable in retreat, invincible in advance, insufferable in victory
    -- Churchill on Montgomery

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