Re: [PATCH 1/5] gitweb: Add a comment explaining the meaning of $/

From: Jakub Narębski <jnareb@gmail.com>
Date: Dec 4, 2013, 17:34 UTC
Message-ID: <CANQwDwfiYAz7dro9mppR62xEFMPTSNjEKYM=7Dhq7auBvyXjSg@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <1386171977.2173.23.camel@localhost.localdomain>

On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 4:46 PM, Krzesimir Nowak <krzesimir@endocode.com> wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

> On Wed, 2013-12-04 at 16:11 +0100, Jakub Narębski wrote:
>> On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 2:42 PM, Krzesimir Nowak <krzesimir@endocode.com> wrote:
>>
>> > So future reader will know what does it mean without running "perldoc
>> > perlvar".
>>
>> Hmmm... shouldn't future reader know it anyway?  It is not that cryptic.
>> I'd say it is idiomatic Perl.
>
> It's plainly obscure. And I think it is not that often used - I keep
> forgetting what that pair of punctuation is actually meaning.

I think it depends on what kind of Perl code one is used to. It is not as obscure as $; and similar to $|, I think.

> In this case I guess it would be more readable to use the following code
> instead:
>
>    $fh->input_record_separator ("\0");

That would be a good change to replace

        local $/ = "\0";

        open my $fh, "-|", git_cmd(), ..., '-z', ...

with

        open my $fh, "-|", git_cmd(), ..., '-z', ...
        $fh->input_record_separator ("\0");

(not forgetting about "use IO::Handle", which module is core Perl module);

Anyway, this change (or proposed change) does not, IMHO, belong in this series.

-- 
Jakub Narebski