Subject: Re: [PATCH v5 08/13] send-email: use function syntax instead of barewords

From: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 29 May 2021 10:17:19 +0200

On Fri, May 28 2021, Felipe Contreras wrote:

> Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:
>> Change calls like "__ 'foo'" to "__('foo')" so the Perl compiler
>> doesn't have to guess that "__" is a function. This makes the code
>> more readable.
>
> Agreed. Ruby has something similar:
>
>   foo arg1, arg2
>   foo(arg1, arg2)
>
> As a C programmer I find the former a quirk of the language, and much
> harder to read.
>
> If it's a function call, present it as such.

I'm not too familiar with Ruby, but the important part here in Perl is
that it's not a "foo()" v.s. "foo" shortcut for a function invocation,
it's unambiguous whether that is a function and what its arguments are
until at that point in the program. Perl has dynamic grammar, you can't
parse it with a regular grammar without executing it.