Re: exists $foo[7] and delete $foo[7]

[Andy Dougherty <doughera@lafayette.edu>]

On Thu, 13 Jan 2000, Chris Nandor wrote:

> At 13.06 -0500 2000.01.13, Ronald J Kimball wrote:

> >I vote a strong NO.  I see no utility in this feature, only confusion.
> >delete() and exists() are well-defined for hashes.  They are not
> >well-defined for arrays.  Hashes and arrays are two different data
> >structures; they should have different manipulator functions.
> 
> While I agree with this sentiment, we already crossed that bridge, I think,
> when we decided on implementing pseudohashes.  I am not saying these should
> be extended to arrays; I think I agree that they should not be.  But you
> seem to be presenting the lines as clear, and they've already been blurred.

Could someone kindly take a step back and explain just why they have been
blurred?  What is the big picture?  I have just read the (very brief)
section of perlref.pod and I confess I don't see the point.  

    Beginning with release 5.005 of Perl, you may use an array reference
    in some contexts that would normally require a hash reference.  This
    allows you to access array elements using symbolic names, as if they
    were fields in a structure.

Also, how is this similar to or different from the sorts of things you
are supposed to be able to do with fields.pm?

Thanks,
 
    Andy Dougherty		doughera@lafayette.edu
    Dept. of Physics
    Lafayette College, Easton PA 18042

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References to:

Chris Nandor <pudge@pobox.com>

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