Perl is worse!

[Grant Edwards]

In article <8lsa9901fm9 at news2.newsguy.com>, Alex Martelli wrote:
>
>> I would assert that although 1 + "foo" is meaningful to the C
>> _compiler_, it is still meaningless to almost "everyone" (as in
>> people) except Perl coders, and probably meaningless to most of
>> them as well.
>
>I think you underestimate the amount of "Obfuscated C" participants
>who have not been Perl coders.  1+"foo" and 1["foo"] are very
>meaningful kinds of constructs to obfuscators!-)

Probably true.  However, I've been writing C code for a living for 15 years,
and I can count on my thumbs the number of people I've met to whom 1 + "foo"
would not be confusing.  (I am not among them -- and I've written a C
compiler!) A few more could figure it out if they were told it was a valid C
expression. Once it was pointed it it was valid, I could see what the value
would be, but most of us would have initially reacted by thinking that
that's not a valid expression.

>What I don't understand is, rather...:
>
>    $foo = ++$bar;
>
>versus
>
>    $foo = 1 + $bar;

I wrote one Perl program about 9 years ago and never did it again.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  BELA LUGOSI is my
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