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From: worley@compass.uucp (Dale Worley)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Possible problem with syscall()
Message-ID: <1990Nov28.165453.28250@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 28 Nov 90 16:54:53 GMT
Sender: mmdf@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU (Uvaarpa Mail System)
Reply-To: worley@compass.uucp
Organization: The Internet
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   From: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)

   No, it doesn't decide by whether it looks like a number, exactly.
   It decides by whether the value has ever been evaluated in a
   numeric context.

IMHO, this is a really weird rule.  I prefer a more Snobol-like rule
where a value knows whether it is a string or a number, and it retains
that identity.  (You can still use the "numeric value slot" of the
value to cache the result of convert-to-numeric.)

BTW, can I give "1" a numeric value by executing:

	"1" == 0

or am I missing something?

Dale Worley		Compass, Inc.			worley@compass.com
--
You think the government has trouble fighting a Drug War - wait until
they start the War on Cholesterol.  -- David Lively