Remove pseudo-hashes (complete)

Message-id: <20020806200510.GC31473@ool-18b93024.dyn.optonline.net>

p4raw-id: //depot/perl@17725

1 files changed, 2 insertions, 71 deletions

diff --git a/pod/perlref.pod b/pod/perlref.pod
index 7255162fcd..7f9b638fad 100644
--- a/pod/perlref.pod
+++ b/pod/perlref.pod
@@ -537,77 +537,8 @@ string is effectively quoted.
 
 =head2 Pseudo-hashes: Using an array as a hash
 
-B<WARNING>:  This section describes an experimental feature.  Details may
-change without notice in future versions.
-
-B<NOTE>: The current user-visible implementation of pseudo-hashes
-(the weird use of the first array element) is deprecated starting from
-Perl 5.8.0 and will be removed in Perl 5.10.0, and the feature will be
-implemented differently.  Not only is the current interface rather ugly,
-but the current implementation slows down normal array and hash use quite
-noticeably.  The 'fields' pragma interface will remain available.
-
-Beginning with release 5.005 of Perl, you may use an array reference
-in some contexts that would normally require a hash reference.  This
-allows you to access array elements using symbolic names, as if they
-were fields in a structure.
-
-For this to work, the array must contain extra information.  The first
-element of the array has to be a hash reference that maps field names
-to array indices.  Here is an example:
-
-    $struct = [{foo => 1, bar => 2}, "FOO", "BAR"];
-
-    $struct->{foo};  # same as $struct->[1], i.e. "FOO"
-    $struct->{bar};  # same as $struct->[2], i.e. "BAR"
-
-    keys %$struct;   # will return ("foo", "bar") in some order
-    values %$struct; # will return ("FOO", "BAR") in same some order
-
-    while (my($k,$v) = each %$struct) {
-       print "$k => $v\n";
-    }
-
-Perl will raise an exception if you try to access nonexistent fields.
-To avoid inconsistencies, always use the fields::phash() function
-provided by the C<fields> pragma.
-
-    use fields;
-    $pseudohash = fields::phash(foo => "FOO", bar => "BAR");
-
-For better performance, Perl can also do the translation from field
-names to array indices at compile time for typed object references.
-See L<fields>.
-
-There are two ways to check for the existence of a key in a
-pseudo-hash.  The first is to use exists().  This checks to see if the
-given field has ever been set.  It acts this way to match the behavior
-of a regular hash.  For instance:
-
-    use fields;
-    $phash = fields::phash([qw(foo bar pants)], ['FOO']);
-    $phash->{pants} = undef;
-
-    print exists $phash->{foo};    # true, 'foo' was set in the declaration
-    print exists $phash->{bar};    # false, 'bar' has not been used.
-    print exists $phash->{pants};  # true, your 'pants' have been touched
-
-The second is to use exists() on the hash reference sitting in the
-first array element.  This checks to see if the given key is a valid
-field in the pseudo-hash.
-
-    print exists $phash->[0]{bar};	# true, 'bar' is a valid field
-    print exists $phash->[0]{shoes};# false, 'shoes' can't be used
-
-delete() on a pseudo-hash element only deletes the value corresponding
-to the key, not the key itself.  To delete the key, you'll have to
-explicitly delete it from the first hash element.
-
-    print delete $phash->{foo};     # prints $phash->[1], "FOO"
-    print exists $phash->{foo};     # false
-    print exists $phash->[0]{foo};  # true, key still exists
-    print delete $phash->[0]{foo};  # now key is gone
-    print $phash->{foo};            # runtime exception
+Pseudo-hashes have been removed from Perl.  The 'fields' pragma
+remains available.
 
 =head2 Function Templates