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I haven't touched Perl in about ten years but your example is kind of insane. This is the one place Python is more annoying than Perl??? my $a = ["foo", 12

I haven't touched Perl in about ten years but your example is kind of insane. This is the one place Python is more annoying than Perl??? my $a = ["foo", 123, {"bar" => [[1,2,3], {"qux" => "quux"}]}]; $a->[2]{"bar"}[1]{"spam"} = "eggs"; use JSON; print(encode_json($a)) That's the same as your example (minus the tuple type), but where Perl shines over Python (a lot) is you could have done the following: use JSON; my $a = []; $a->[2]{"bar"}[1]{"spam"} = "eggs"; print(encode_json($a)) which would yield the json: [null,null,{"bar":[null,{"spam":"eggs"}]}] To do this in Python is truly grim: import json from collections import defaultdict # recursive defaultdict using lambda datastructure = lambda: defaultdict(datastructure) a = [None] * 3 a[2] = datastructure() a[2]["bar"][1]["spam"] = "eggs" print(json.dumps(a)) and thats doing it the unpythonic way, if you were to do this like the typical Python dev would accept in an MR for a large corp you would have written: import json from collections import defaultdict def datastructure(): return defaultdict(datastructure) a = [] # expand list to at least length 3 while len(a) < 3: a.append(None) a[2] = datastructure() a[2]["bar"][1]["spam"] = "eggs" print(json.dumps(a)) They would still hate you for defaultdict(datastructure) though. Because absolutely no one in Python realises its got that level of expressionism one of the few places it does.

kstrauser 1y ago
Why is there an arrow between $a and [2], but not between [2] and {“bar”}, in this? $a->[2]{"bar"} The highest rated SO answer here explains a little, and it’s the kind of situational nitpickiness that let to me dropping Perl like a hot potato when something better matching my mental model came across my radar: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1817394/whats-the-difference-between-a-hash-and-hash-reference-in-perl https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1817394/whats-the-differ...
- Enk1du 1y ago
  I suppose it's because very soon people got tired of writing $a->[2]->{"bar"} which is equivalent and also works, but suffers from the explosion of punctuation that Perl often gets criticised for. There's an element of Do What I Mean where the first arrow says this is a reference and work the rest out for me.
- odc 1y ago
  In Perl -> is the dereference operator, similar to C. So when you see $a->[2]{"bar"} then $a is an array reference where each item is a hashmap. But with $a->[2]->{"bar"} then $a is an array reference where each item is a reference to a hashmap.
  - zaucker 1y ago
    $a->[2]->{"bar"} is the same as $a->[2]{"bar"} or as $a->[2]{bar}

kstrauser 1y ago

Why is there an arrow between $a and [2], but not between [2] and {“bar”}, in this? $a->[2]{"bar"} The highest rated SO answer here explains a little, and it’s the kind of situational nitpickiness that let to me dropping Perl like a hot potato when something better matching my mental model came across my radar: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1817394/whats-the-difference-between-a-hash-and-hash-reference-in-perl https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1817394/whats-the-differ...

Enk1du 1y ago
I suppose it's because very soon people got tired of writing $a->[2]->{"bar"} which is equivalent and also works, but suffers from the explosion of punctuation that Perl often gets criticised for. There's an element of Do What I Mean where the first arrow says this is a reference and work the rest out for me.
odc 1y ago
In Perl -> is the dereference operator, similar to C. So when you see $a->[2]{"bar"} then $a is an array reference where each item is a hashmap. But with $a->[2]->{"bar"} then $a is an array reference where each item is a reference to a hashmap.
- zaucker 1y ago
  $a->[2]->{"bar"} is the same as $a->[2]{"bar"} or as $a->[2]{bar}