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Seperate class for Perl scalars?


Per Bothner <per@bothner.com> wrote:
 
> One other suggestion: So you really need the Scalar class?  Why not use
> String and Number classes directly?  (You can use the classes in gnu.math,
> if you wish, or plain old Number sub-classes in java.lang.)

The problem that I have come across is that it will cause many String to
Number conversions if I do that.

For example, in Perl:

         $x = 5; $x .= "foo"; print $x ;
         yields:
                  5foo
And
         $x = "5bar"; $y = 7 + $x; print "$x$y";
         yields:
                  5bar12

So, the lowest common denominator is likely strings; however, typical Perl
programs will have many implicit conversions.  A scalar inside the current
perl implementation has the ability to hold multiple representations of
different types at once, and results are cached.

I worry about excessive number to string conversions if I don't do the same
thing here.

Thoughts?


-- 
Bradley M. Kuhn  -  http://www.ebb.org/bkuhn

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