stef@zweig.sun (Stephane Payrard) (02/13/91)
FRONTSTUFF p 183 of the perl book:
I don't understand why it is necessary to
prepend the value 'FRONTSTUFF' to the list
defining the %head associative array.
I have not yet read the book cover to cover, so I surely miss
something.
Felicitation to the authors for the quality of their work. I like
their style which contrasts very much with the boring and impersonal
style of most of the technical litterature (even if I need to open
more often my English dictionnary.)
thanks
--
Stephane Payrard -- stef@eng.sun.com -- (415) 336 3726
SMI 2550 Garcia Avenue M/S 10-09 Mountain View CA 94043
lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall) (02/13/91)
In article <STEF.91Feb12142129@zweig.sun> stef@zweig.sun (Stephane Payrard) writes:
: FRONTSTUFF p 183 of the perl book:
:
: I don't understand why it is necessary to
: prepend the value 'FRONTSTUFF' to the list
: defining the %head associative array.
Because the keywords are returned as delimiters, so the first keyword will
be the second field. If nothing preceeds the keyword in the string, the
first field will be null. If you have something like a uucp "From " line
on the front, that will be the first field. Assignment to an associative
array wants each value to be preceeded by its key, so we arbitrarily give
the first field a key of 'FRONTSTUFF'.
: Felicitation to the authors for the quality of their work. I like
: their style which contrasts very much with the boring and impersonal
: style of most of the technical litterature (even if I need to open
: more often my English dictionnary.)
Thank Tim O for letting us, or rather, encouraging us write that way.
Larry