Re: proposed addition to perlvar

On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 08:41, Aristotle Pagaltzis <[email protected]> wrote:
> * Abigail <[email protected]> [2010-06-09 23:05]:
>> In a section showing an example of '$#', the example should
>> preferable have as few other things as possible - I would
>> prefer the above over any foreach construct. These lines are
>> about $#. Not foreach. Not ranges. And it is code that people
>> will encounter - and consult the documentation for.
>
> The code they will encounter by far the most is `0 .. $#foo`. By
> your own argument, that would ideally be part of the examples.
>
>
> * Chas. Owens <[email protected]> [2010-06-09 18:00]:
>> C<$#> is also used as sigil, which, when prepended on the name of an
>> array or applied to an array reference gives the index of the last
>> element in that array.
>
> Too many details. (Typical documentitis.) Less is more:
>
>    C<$#> is also an alternative sigil for arrays which yields
>    the index of the last element.
>
> The examples should make plenty clear what that means.
>
>
> diff --git a/pod/perlvar.pod b/pod/perlvar.pod
> index 6c04c2e..8f001aa 100644
> --- a/pod/perlvar.pod
> +++ b/pod/perlvar.pod
> @@ -1651,8 +1651,8 @@ C<$#> used to be a variable that could be used to format printed numbers.
>  After a deprecation cycle, its magic was removed in Perl 5.10 and using it
>  now triggers a warning: C<$# is no longer supported>.
>
> -C<$#> is also used as sigil, which, when prepended on the name of an
> -array, gives the index of the last element in that array.
> +C<$#> is also an alternative sigil for arrays which yields the index
> +of the last element.
>
>     my @array        = ("a", "b", "c");
>     my $last_index   = $#array;   # $last_index is 2
>

That is much cleaner while still being correct.

-- 
Chas. Owens
wonkden.net
The most important skill a programmer can have is the ability to read.