RFC 74 (v3) Proposal to rename C<import> and C<unimport>

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=head1 TITLE

Proposal to rename C<import> and C<unimport>

=head1 VERSION

  Maintainer: Jonathan Scott Duff <[email protected]>
  Date: 8 Aug 2000
  Last-Modified: 1 Sep 2000
  Mailing List: [email protected]
  Version: 3
  Number: 74
  Status: Developing

=head1 ABSTRACT

C<import()> and C<unimport> should be C<IMPORT> and C<UNIMPORT>
respectively, in keeping with all of the other special-to-Perl names.

=head1 DESCRIPTION

The Perl documentation says that 

	use Module LIST;

is equivalent to 

	BEGIN { require Module; import Module LIST; }

so that C<use Module LIST> automatically calls the C<import> routine
for that module if it exists.  Thus C<import> is a routine that has
special meaning to Perl.  This RFC proposes that C<import> and C<unimport>
be renamed to C<IMPORT> and C<UNIMPORT> respectively.  This would be
consistent with the naming of all other subroutines that are special
to Perl.

Nathan Wiger <[email protected]> suggests that we create an C<import>
keyword (and I assume an C<unimport> keyword as well) that calls
C<import Module LIST>.  The author of this RFC would rather not add
new keywords.  However, I see no reason why the B<module> author
should not provide an C<import()> routine that is simply an alias for
C<IMPORT()>.

=head1 IMPLEMENTATION

Just change the names!

=head1 MIGRATION

The Perl5 -> Perl6 translator should provide a C<import> alias for the
C<IMPORT> routine to ease migration.  Likewise for C<unimport>.

=head1 REFERENCES

Perl 5.6.0 documentation

RFC 59: Proposal to utilize C<*> as the prefix to magic subroutines

Email from Nathan Wiger <[email protected]> that went to perl6-language
but I can't find at www.mail-archive.com  :-(