Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!convex!newsadm
From: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: using contents of a scalar variable as a variable name
Message-ID: <1991Apr16.111348.9627@convex.com>
Date: 16 Apr 91 11:13:48 GMT
References: <1991Apr12.023355.2449@iwarp.intel.com> <1991Apr13.042043.9023@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov> <9662@star.cs.vu.nl>
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Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Organization: CONVEX Software Development, Richardson, TX
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From the keyboard of gpvos@cs.vu.nl (Gerben 'P' Vos):
:Also bindings with dbm files?
:That * stuff sounds awful.

No, only variables with "magic" names, like SIG and ENV.  Dbm bindings
still work fine -- I in fact use this.

But listen guys, I seriously suggest avoiding *foo notation unless and
until you're darn sure you know what's going on.  Pass-by-name is one of
the most obscure things in the whole language.  Combine that with dynamic
scoping, put it in the hands of a novice used to C or awk, and you're just
asking for trouble.  I use it, and I'm glad it's there for the efficiency
tweaks and functionality it gives me, but it's one of the harder things to
teach, and I usually just get groans out of the audience.

--tom