RFC 290 (v1) Remove -X

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  http://dev.perl.org/rfc/

=head1 TITLE

Remove -X

=head1 VERSION

  Maintainer: Adam Turoff <[email protected]>
  Date: 24 Sep 2000
  Mailing List: [email protected]
  Number: 290
  Version: 1
  Status: Developing

=head1 ABSTRACT

File tests (-r/-w/-x/...) made sense when Perl's shellness was an
attribute.  Most new Perl programmers are not coming from a shell
programming background, and the -X syntax is opaque and bizarre.
It should be removed.

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Tom Christiansen proposed this in his perl6storm message:

	=item perl6storm #0101

	Just like the "use english" pragma (the modern not-yet-written
	version of "use English" module), make something for legible
	fileops.

		is_readable(file) is really -r(file)

	note that these are hard to write now due to -s(FH)/2 style
	parsing bugs and prototype issues on handles vs paths.

Aside from providing parsing bugs and prototype issues, the -X
syntax is strange and confusing to many Perl programmers who are
completely unfamiliar with Bourne shell syntax.

The prefered mechanism for file tests should be more legible, using
terms like 'readable(FOO)' and 'writeable(FOO)' instead of the
opaque '-r FOO' and '-x FOO'.  Furthermore, these tests should
remain useable where appropriate on any I/O mechanism, not just
files.

=head1 MIGRATION ISSUES

p52p6 would convert instances of -X to the appropriate legible test.

Perl programmers happy with the -X syntax will need to get used to the
lengthier replacement.

=head1 IMPLEMENTATION

None required.

=head1 REFERENCES

perl6storm