From: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:21:13 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH] add -p: import Term::ReadKey with 'require'
Message-ID: <200902070021.18928.trast@student.ethz.ch>
In-Reply-To: <20090206203037.GB19959@coredump.intra.peff.net>

Jeff King wrote:
> I believe it is fine. The tricky thing is that perl's parsing is
> dependent on what functions have been defined. So it is OK to say
> 
>   ReadKey 0;
> 
> if a subroutine ReadKey has been defined, but otherwise it generates a
> warning about using the bareword as a function. However
> 
>   ReadKey(0);
> 
> parses unambiguously, so it is always OK, even if no subroutine has yet
> been defined.

Ok, that explains a lot.  I always thought Perl had a syntax
influenced somewhat by the functional programming languages, where the
parentheses are usually optional.  Clearly not so.

> (note that you could also skip the import and just call
> Term::ReadKey::ReadKey by its full name).

I tried that but couldn't get either Term::ReadKey::ReadKey or
Term::ReadKey->ReadKey to work.  In retrospect, I suppose it requires
parentheses too.

Thanks for the review!

-- 
Thomas Rast
trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch