Re: [FWP] Perl Moral Support

[Ariel Scolnicov <ariels@compugen.co.il>]

John Porter <jdporter@min.net> writes:

> Ariel Scolnicov wrote:
> > 
> > No, what Perl has that Python doesn't is good-clean-CS-theory
> > *closures*.  Both languages let you have functions as (nearly)
> > first-class objects 
> 
> Perl closures can be perl objects (no "nearly" about it):
> 
>   bless sub { ... }, $class;

That's not quite what I meant.  If I take say "bless $ref, 'Foo'" then 
I get a Foo object, no matter what $ref was originally referring to
(think of that as the implementation of Foo).  But what sub { ... }
returns is a function reference (just like [1,2,3,] returns a list
reference).

The term "first-class object" itself has little to do with
object-oriented programming (see, e.g., _Structure and Interpretation
of Computer Programming_).  It means that the language gives functions
the same treatment as its other objects (can be stored in variables,
passed to and returned from functions, etc.).  The main reason I
wouldn't call function references "first-class objects" is that the
language itself sometimes bypasses the function object mechanism
(e.g. "sort { $a <=> $b } @list").

-- 
Ariel Scolnicov        |"GCAAGAATTGAACTGTAG"            |ariels@compugen.co.il
Compugen Ltd.          |Tel: +972-2-6795059 (Jerusalem)	\ We recycle all our Hz
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