Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jpl-devvax!lwall
From: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: sh: foo=${bar-baz}; perl: ($foo = $bar) =~ s/^$/baz/;
Message-ID: <8946@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Date: 31 Jul 90 22:56:08 GMT
References: <7195@star.cs.vu.nl>
Reply-To: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 18

In article <7195@star.cs.vu.nl> maart@cs.vu.nl (Maarten Litmaath) writes:
: Anything better?  Remember, the variables could have looooooooong names
: you rather wouldn't retype.

I fail to see the name you had to retype in

	($foo = $bar) =~ s/^$/baz/;

However, if, as is often the case, you know $bar isn't going to have the
value "0", it's shorter and much more intuitive to say

	$foo = $bar || "baz";

as in

	$home = $ENV{'HOME'} || $ENV{'LOGDIR'} || (getpwuid($<))[7] || die;

Larry