From: Gavin Sinclair <gsinclair@...>
Date: 2002-09-11T08:03:21+09:00
Subject: Re: Larry Wall's comments on Ruby


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Stok" <mike@stok.co.uk>


> In Ruby a variable's type tells us what it is, in Perl the operators
> provide context as to what a scalar ought to be viewed as, and this
> is why they need an "extra" set of comparison operators e.g.
>
>   # perl
>
>   $a = '123 ';
>   $b = 45;
>
>   # $a + $b  => 168
>   # $a . $b  => '123 45'
>
>   # $a > $b  => 1
>   # $a gt $b => a false value
>
> I prefer the explicitness of ruby (requiring .to_?), and its overloading
> of + isn't too surprising e.g.
>
>   2 + 2           => 4
>   "123 " + "45"   => "123 45"
>   [1,2,3] + [4,5] => [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>
> Mike
>

The >/gt dichotomy prevented me from ever grokking Perl.  *That* was unnatural!

Gavin