=head1 TITLE 

C<chomp()> changes.

=head1 VERSION

  Maintainer: Ted Ashton <ashted@southern.edu>
  Date: 7 Aug 2000
  Mailing List: perl6-language@perl.org
  Number: 58
  Version: 1
  Status: Developing

=head1 ABSTRACT 

The current return value of C<chomp()> is little-used and tends to confuse
those learning perl.  Here is presented a change to C<chomp()>'s return value
and to the C<while(E<lt>FILEHANDLEE<gt>)> construction.

=head1 DESCRIPTION 

This RFC contains two proposed changes.  First, as it is common to want to 
removed newlines upon reading a file, 

  while (chomp(<FILEHANDLE>)) {
    . . .
  }

should become the equivalent of

  while (<FILEHANDLE>) {
    chomp;
    . . .
  }

or, to put it more explicitly,

  while (defined($_ = <FILEHANDLE>)) {
    chomp $_;
    . . .
  }

where the various equivalent constructions would, of course, work as expected.  

Second, as it seems common for someone learning perl to expect

  $without_newline = chomp($previous_form);

to put a copy of the text in C<$previous_form>, sans newline, into
C<$without_newline> while not modifying C<$previous_form>, Perl should
do just that.

C<chomp()> called in void context would remove the newline
from the variable (or members of the list) upon which it was called.
C<chomp()> called in a scalar context would leave its argument variable
untouched and instead return a C<chomp()>ed version of that variable's
contents.  Likewise and furthermore for other contexts.

=head1 IMPLEMENTATION 

As I know little about perl5 internals and even less about perl6, I shall 
simply present the following notes:

=over 4

=item *

This proposal does not speak to what should happen with C<chop()>.

=item *

The proposed demise of C<$/> and stated determination that there will be no
default filehandle will have an effect on C<chomp()>.  After all, that's how
it determines which character to seek at the end of the line.

=back 4

=head1 REFERENCES

  The Camel II, pp 53 and 149.