error reporting of [$a ; $b] can be a TODO.

p4raw-id: //depot/perl@34451

1 files changed, 17 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/pod/perltodo.pod b/pod/perltodo.pod
index 7a1a48a6b8..558921ce77 100644
--- a/pod/perltodo.pod
+++ b/pod/perltodo.pod
@@ -845,6 +845,23 @@ also the warning messages (see L<perllexwarn>, C<warnings.pl>).
 These tasks would need C knowledge, and knowledge of how the interpreter works,
 or a willingness to learn.
 
+=head2 error reporting of [$a ; $b]
+
+Using C<;> inside brackets is a syntax error, and we don't propose to change
+that by giving it any meaning. However, it's not reported very helpfully:
+
+    $ perl -e '$a = [$b; $c];'
+    syntax error at -e line 1, near "$b;"
+    syntax error at -e line 1, near "$c]"
+    Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.
+
+It should be possible to hook into the tokeniser or the lexer, so that when a
+C<;> is parsed where it is not legal as a statement terminator (ie inside
+C<{}> used as a hashref, C<[]> or C<()>) it issues an error something like
+I<';' isn't legal inside an expression - if you need multiple statements use a
+do {...} block>. See the thread starting at
+http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2008-09/msg00573.html
+
 =head2 lexicals used only once
 
 This warns: