source: trunk/essentials/dev-lang/perl/pod/perlfaq7.pod@ 3280

=head1 NAME

perlfaq7 - General Perl Language Issues ($Revision: 1.28 $, $Date: 2005/12/31 00:54:37 $)

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This section deals with general Perl language issues that don't
clearly fit into any of the other sections.

=head2 Can I get a BNF/yacc/RE for the Perl language?

There is no BNF, but you can paw your way through the yacc grammar in
perly.y in the source distribution if you're particularly brave.  The
grammar relies on very smart tokenizing code, so be prepared to
venture into toke.c as well.

In the words of Chaim Frenkel: "Perl's grammar can not be reduced to BNF.
The work of parsing perl is distributed between yacc, the lexer, smoke
and mirrors."

=head2 What are all these $@%&* punctuation signs, and how do I know when to use them?

They are type specifiers, as detailed in L<perldata>:

    $ for scalar values (number, string or reference)
    @ for arrays
    % for hashes (associative arrays)
    & for subroutines (aka functions, procedures, methods)
    * for all types of that symbol name.  In version 4 you used them like
      pointers, but in modern perls you can just use references.

There are couple of other symbols that you're likely to encounter that aren't
really type specifiers:

    <> are used for inputting a record from a filehandle.
    \  takes a reference to something.

Note that <FILE> is I<neither> the type specifier for files
nor the name of the handle.  It is the C<< <> >> operator applied
to the handle FILE.  It reads one line (well, record--see
L<perlvar/$E<sol>>) from the handle FILE in scalar context, or I<all> lines
in list context.  When performing open, close, or any other operation
besides C<< <> >> on files, or even when talking about the handle, do
I<not> use the brackets.  These are correct: C<eof(FH)>, C<seek(FH, 0,
2)> and "copying from STDIN to FILE".

=head2 Do I always/never have to quote my strings or use semicolons and commas?

Normally, a bareword doesn't need to be quoted, but in most cases
probably should be (and must be under C<use strict>).  But a hash key
consisting of a simple word (that isn't the name of a defined
subroutine) and the left-hand operand to the C<< => >> operator both
count as though they were quoted:

    This                    is like this
    ------------            ---------------
    $foo{line}              $foo{'line'}
    bar => stuff            'bar' => stuff

The final semicolon in a block is optional, as is the final comma in a
list.  Good style (see L<perlstyle>) says to put them in except for
one-liners:

    if ($whoops) { exit 1 }
    @nums = (1, 2, 3);

    if ($whoops) {
        exit 1;
    }
    @lines = (
        "There Beren came from mountains cold",
        "And lost he wandered under leaves",
    );

=head2 How do I skip some return values?

One way is to treat the return values as a list and index into it:

        $dir = (getpwnam($user))[7];

Another way is to use undef as an element on the left-hand-side:

    ($dev, $ino, undef, undef, $uid, $gid) = stat($file);

You can also use a list slice to select only the elements that
you need:

        ($dev, $ino, $uid, $gid) = ( stat($file) )[0,1,4,5];

=head2 How do I temporarily block warnings?

If you are running Perl 5.6.0 or better, the C<use warnings> pragma
allows fine control of what warning are produced.
See L<perllexwarn> for more details.

    {
        no warnings;          # temporarily turn off warnings
        $a = $b + $c;         # I know these might be undef
    }

Additionally, you can enable and disable categories of warnings.
You turn off the categories you want to ignore and you can still
get other categories of warnings.  See L<perllexwarn> for the
complete details, including the category names and hierarchy.

        {
        no warnings 'uninitialized';
        $a = $b + $c;
        }

If you have an older version of Perl, the C<$^W> variable (documented
in L<perlvar>) controls runtime warnings for a block:

    {
        local $^W = 0;        # temporarily turn off warnings
        $a = $b + $c;         # I know these might be undef
    }

Note that like all the punctuation variables, you cannot currently
use my() on C<$^W>, only local().

=head2 What's an extension?

An extension is a way of calling compiled C code from Perl.  Reading
L<perlxstut> is a good place to learn more about extensions.

=head2 Why do Perl operators have different precedence than C operators?

Actually, they don't.  All C operators that Perl copies have the same
precedence in Perl as they do in C.  The problem is with operators that C
doesn't have, especially functions that give a list context to everything
on their right, eg. print, chmod, exec, and so on.  Such functions are
called "list operators" and appear as such in the precedence table in
L<perlop>.

A common mistake is to write:

    unlink $file || die "snafu";

This gets interpreted as:

    unlink ($file || die "snafu");

To avoid this problem, either put in extra parentheses or use the
super low precedence C<or> operator:

    (unlink $file) || die "snafu";
    unlink $file or die "snafu";

The "English" operators (C<and>, C<or>, C<xor>, and C<not>)
deliberately have precedence lower than that of list operators for
just such situations as the one above.

Another operator with surprising precedence is exponentiation.  It
binds more tightly even than unary minus, making C<-2**2> product a
negative not a positive four.  It is also right-associating, meaning
that C<2**3**2> is two raised to the ninth power, not eight squared.

Although it has the same precedence as in C, Perl's C<?:> operator
produces an lvalue.  This assigns $x to either $a or $b, depending
on the trueness of $maybe:

    ($maybe ? $a : $b) = $x;

=head2 How do I declare/create a structure?

In general, you don't "declare" a structure.  Just use a (probably
anonymous) hash reference.  See L<perlref> and L<perldsc> for details.
Here's an example:

    $person = {};                   # new anonymous hash
    $person->{AGE}  = 24;           # set field AGE to 24
    $person->{NAME} = "Nat";        # set field NAME to "Nat"

If you're looking for something a bit more rigorous, try L<perltoot>.

=head2 How do I create a module?

(contributed by brian d foy)

L<perlmod>, L<perlmodlib>, L<perlmodstyle> explain modules
in all the gory details. L<perlnewmod> gives a brief
overview of the process along with a couple of suggestions
about style.

If you need to include C code or C library interfaces in
your module, you'll need h2xs.  h2xs will create the module
distribution structure and the initial interface files
you'll need.  L<perlxs> and L<perlxstut> explain the details.

If you don't need to use C code, other tools such as
ExtUtils::ModuleMaker and Module::Starter, can help you
create a skeleton module distribution.

You may also want to see Sam Tregar's "Writing Perl Modules
for CPAN" ( http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=14 )
which is the best hands-on guide to creating module
distributions.

=head2 How do I create a class?

See L<perltoot> for an introduction to classes and objects, as well as
L<perlobj> and L<perlbot>.

=head2 How can I tell if a variable is tainted?

You can use the tainted() function of the Scalar::Util module, available
from CPAN (or included with Perl since release 5.8.0).
See also L<perlsec/"Laundering and Detecting Tainted Data">.

=head2 What's a closure?

Closures are documented in L<perlref>.

I<Closure> is a computer science term with a precise but
hard-to-explain meaning. Closures are implemented in Perl as anonymous
subroutines with lasting references to lexical variables outside their
own scopes.  These lexicals magically refer to the variables that were
around when the subroutine was defined (deep binding).

Closures make sense in any programming language where you can have the
return value of a function be itself a function, as you can in Perl.
Note that some languages provide anonymous functions but are not
capable of providing proper closures: the Python language, for
example.  For more information on closures, check out any textbook on
functional programming.  Scheme is a language that not only supports
but encourages closures.

Here's a classic function-generating function:

    sub add_function_generator {
      return sub { shift() + shift() };
    }

    $add_sub = add_function_generator();
    $sum = $add_sub->(4,5);                # $sum is 9 now.

The closure works as a I<function template> with some customization
slots left out to be filled later.  The anonymous subroutine returned
by add_function_generator() isn't technically a closure because it
refers to no lexicals outside its own scope.

Contrast this with the following make_adder() function, in which the
returned anonymous function contains a reference to a lexical variable
outside the scope of that function itself.  Such a reference requires
that Perl return a proper closure, thus locking in for all time the
value that the lexical had when the function was created.

    sub make_adder {