=head1 TITLE

Sane resolution to large function returns

=head1 VERSION

  Maintainer: Jerrad Pierce <belg4mit@mit.edu>
  Date: 17 Aug 2000
  Mailing List: perl6-internals@perl.org
  Number: 127
  Version: 1
  Status: Developing

=head1 ABSTRACT

Perl has traditionally returned from various functions long (>3) lists
of values. This can be somewhat frustrating, especially if you require
one of the many datum returned. RFC 37 would have us break backward
compatability to solve this "problem".

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Functions like stat() and get*() return long lists of values.
The implementation is assumedly easy: just push some values
out of C structs into the Perl return stack.

This gives the end user a large list to deal with, which can be
unwieldy, especially when a single datum is desired. The typical
solution is to do something along the lines of C<(stat($file))[8]>.
Not elegant, but it works.

=head1 IMPLEMENTATION

There has been a proposed new core function C<want()>. this seems
to be generally regarded as a good thing. Fine. If it is implemented
we should use it. Offending functions (See RFC 37) should use
C<want()> internally to determine what to return i.e; a list or a hash.

As for single datum access, I<perhaps> C<function->[index]> or
C<function()->{key}> should be considered. This however, is not the
core of this proposal. Merely a possibility. Just as extending the
inelegant metaphor above to C<{function()}->{key}> would become a
possibility.

=head1 REFERENCES

RFC 21: Replace C<wantarray> with a generic C<want> function 

RFC 37: Positional Return Lists Considered Harmful