Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

[svn:perl6-synopsis] r14339 - doc/trunk/design/syn

0 views
Skip to first unread message

la...@cvs.perl.org

unread,
Mar 12, 2007, 4:30:46 PM3/12/07
to perl6-l...@perl.org
Author: larry
Date: Mon Mar 12 13:30:46 2007
New Revision: 14339

Modified:
doc/trunk/design/syn/S02.pod
doc/trunk/design/syn/S03.pod
doc/trunk/design/syn/S04.pod
doc/trunk/design/syn/S06.pod

Log:
Various clarifications suggested by TheDamian++
Explicit pipe target is now @(*) or @@(*).
Separated clobbering <== ==> from pushy <<== and ==>>
Pushy pipes can now be stacked on filters as well as sinks.
$?BLOCK and other contexts now consistently return a list of labels.


Modified: doc/trunk/design/syn/S02.pod
==============================================================================
--- doc/trunk/design/syn/S02.pod (original)
+++ doc/trunk/design/syn/S02.pod Mon Mar 12 13:30:46 2007
@@ -12,9 +12,9 @@

Maintainer: Larry Wall <la...@wall.org>
Date: 10 Aug 2004
- Last Modified: 11 Mar 2007
+ Last Modified: 12 Mar 2007
Number: 2
- Version: 94
+ Version: 95

This document summarizes Apocalypse 2, which covers small-scale
lexical items and typological issues. (These Synopses also contain
@@ -1648,7 +1648,7 @@
@?ROUTINE Which nested routines am I in?
&?BLOCK Which block am I in?
@?BLOCK Which nested blocks am I in?
- $?LABEL Which block label am I in?
+ $?LABEL Which innermost block label am I in?
@?LABEL Which nested block labels am I in?

All the nested C<@?> variables are ordered from the innermost to the
@@ -2472,8 +2472,8 @@
line number range within the source file.

The lexical routine itself is C<&?ROUTINE>; you can get its name with
-C<&ROUTINE.name>. The current block is C<&?BLOCK>. If the block has a label,
-that shows up in C<&?BLOCK.label>. Within the lexical scope of
+C<&ROUTINE.name>. The current block is C<&?BLOCK>. If the block has any
+labels, those shows up in C<&?BLOCK.labels>. Within the lexical scope of
a statement with a label, the label is a pseudo-object representing
the dynamic context of that statement. (If inside multiple dynamic
instances of that statement, the label represents the innermost one.)

Modified: doc/trunk/design/syn/S03.pod
==============================================================================
--- doc/trunk/design/syn/S03.pod (original)
+++ doc/trunk/design/syn/S03.pod Mon Mar 12 13:30:46 2007
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
Date: 8 Mar 2004
Last Modified: 12 Mar 2007
Number: 3
- Version: 107
+ Version: 108

=head1 Overview

@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@
List prefix = : print push say die map substr ... [+] [*] any all
Loose and and
Loose or or xor err
- Terminator ; <==, ==>, {...}, modifiers, unmatched ), ], }
+ Terminator ; <==, ==>, <<==, ==>>, {...}, modifiers, extra ), ], }

If you don't see your favorite operator there, the following
sections cover all the operators in precedence order. Basic operator
@@ -1393,10 +1393,24 @@

=item *

-Feed operators: <==, ==>
+Feed operators: <==, ==>, <<==, ==>>

source() ==> filter() ==> sink()

+The forms with the double angle append rather than clobber the sink's
+todo list. The C<<< ==>> >>> form always looks ahead for an appropriate
+target to append to, either the final sink in the chain, or the next
+filter stage with an explicit C<@(*)> or C<@@(*)> target. This means
+you can stack multiple feeds onto one filter command:
+
+ source1() ==>>
+ source2() ==>>
+ source3() ==>>
+ filter(@(*)) ==> sink()
+
+Similar semantics apply to C<<< <<== >>> except it looks backward for
+an appropriate target to append to.
+
=item *

Control block: <ws>{...}
@@ -2521,7 +2535,7 @@

$hacker.feed:xxx('Pizza and cola');

-is tokenized as an adverb applying to the method:
+is tokenized as an adverb applying to the method as its "preceding operator":

$hacker.feed :xxx('Pizza and cola');

@@ -2529,7 +2543,8 @@

$hacker.feed: xxx('Pizza and cola'); # wrong

-If you want both meanings of colon, you have to put it twice:
+If you want both meanings of colon in order to supply both an adverb
+and some positional arguments, you have to put the colon twice:

$hacker.feed: :xxx('Pizza and cola'), 1,2,3;

@@ -3366,27 +3381,30 @@

=head1 Traversing arrays in parallel

-In order to support parallel iteration over multiple arrays, Perl 6 has
-a C<zip> function that builds C<Seq> objects from the elements of two or more
-arrays.
+In order to support parallel iteration over multiple arrays, Perl 6
+has a C<zip> function that builds a list of C<Seq> objects from the
+elements of two or more arrays. In ordinary list context this behaves
+as a list of C<Captures> and automatically flattens.

- for zip(@names; @codes) -> [$name, $zip] {
+ for zip(@names; @codes) -> $name, $zip {
print "Name: $name; Zip code: $zip\n";
}

C<zip> has an infix synonym, the C<Z> operator.

-To read arrays in parallel like C<zip> but just sequence the values
-rather than generating tuples, use C<each> instead of C<zip>.
+In an explicitly multidimensional list context, however, the sequences
+turn into subarrays, and each element would then have to be unpacked
+by the signature:

- for each(@names; @codes) -> $name, $zip {
+ for @@(zip(@names; @codes)) -> [$name, $zip] {
print "Name: $name; Zip code: $zip\n";
}

-The C<each> function reads to the end of the longest list, not counting
-lists that are known to be infinite such as C<0..Inf>. Missing values
-are replaced with C<undef>. In contrast, use C<roundrobin> if you just
-wish to skip missing entries:
+By default the C<zip> function reads to the end of the shortest list,
+but a short list may always be extended arbitrarily by putting C<*>
+after the final value, which replicates the final value as many times
+as necessary. If instead of supplying a default value for short lists,
+you just wish to skip missing entries, use C<roundrobin> instead:

for roundrobin(@queue1; @queue2; @queue3) -> $next {
...
@@ -3399,6 +3417,9 @@

@foo := [[1,2,3],[4,5,6]]; say cat([;] @foo); # 1,2,3,4,5,6

+(The C<cat> function is not entirely useless; it also provides stringy
+semantics in string context.)
+
=head1 Minimal whitespace DWIMmery

Whitespace is no longer allowed before the opening bracket of an array

Modified: doc/trunk/design/syn/S04.pod
==============================================================================
--- doc/trunk/design/syn/S04.pod (original)
+++ doc/trunk/design/syn/S04.pod Mon Mar 12 13:30:46 2007
@@ -12,9 +12,9 @@

Maintainer: Larry Wall <la...@wall.org>
Date: 19 Aug 2004
- Last Modified: 15 Feb 2007
+ Last Modified: 12 Mar 2007
Number: 4
- Version: 53
+ Version: 54

This document summarizes Apocalypse 4, which covers the block and
statement syntax of Perl.
@@ -689,10 +689,10 @@

caller.leave(1,2,3)

-Further contexts up the caller stack may be located by the selector
-that is built into the C<context> function itself:
+Further contexts up the caller stack may be located by use of the
+C<context> function:

- context(0, { .label eq 'LINE' }).leave(1,2,3);
+ context({ .labels.any eq 'LINE' }).leave(1,2,3);

By default the innermost dynamic scope matching the selection criteria
will be exited. This can be a bit cumbersome, so in the particular

Modified: doc/trunk/design/syn/S06.pod
==============================================================================
--- doc/trunk/design/syn/S06.pod (original)
+++ doc/trunk/design/syn/S06.pod Mon Mar 12 13:30:46 2007
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
Date: 21 Mar 2003
Last Modified: 12 Mar 2007
Number: 6
- Version: 77
+ Version: 78


This document summarizes Apocalypse 6, which covers subroutines and the
@@ -420,18 +420,6 @@
:%what :what(%what)
:&what :what(&what)

-There is a corresponding shortcut for hash keys if you prefix the
-subscript instead of the sigil. The C<:> is not functioning as an
-operator here, but as a modifier of the following token:
-
- doit %hash:<a>,1,2,3;
- doit %hash:{'b'},1,2,3;
-
-are short for
-
- doit :a(%hash<a>),1,2,3;
- doit :b(%hash{'b'}),1,2,3;
-
Ordinary hash notation will just pass the value of the hash entry as a
positional argument regardless of whether it is a pair or not.
To pass both key and value out of hash as a positional pair, use C<:p>
@@ -440,9 +428,13 @@
doit %hash<a>:p,1,2,3;
doit %hash{'b'}:p,1,2,3;

-(The C<:p> stands for "pairs", not "positional"--the
-C<:p> adverb may be placed on any Hash objects to make it mean
-"pairs" instead of "values".)
+The C<:p> stands for "pairs", not "positional"--the C<:p> adverb may be
+placed on any Hash access to make it mean "pairs" instead of "values".
+If you want the pair (or pairs) to be interpreted a named argument,
+you may do so by prefixing with the C<< prefix:<|> >> operator:
+
+ doit |%hash<a>:p,1,2,3;
+ doit |%hash{'b'}:p,1,2,3;

Pair constructors are recognized syntactically at the call level and
put into the named slot of the C<Capture> structure. Hence they may be
@@ -519,7 +511,7 @@

=head2 Longname parameters

-Routines marked with C<multi> can mark part of its parameters to
+A routine marked with C<multi> can mark part of its parameters to
be considered in the multi dispatch. These are called I<longnames>;
see S12 for more about the semantics of multiple dispatch.

@@ -640,14 +632,20 @@

Arguments that correspond to named parameters are evaluated in scalar
context. They can only be passed by name, so it doesn't matter what
-order you pass them in, so long as they don't intermingle with any
-positional arguments:
+order you pass them in:

$formal = formalize($title, case=>'upper');
$formal = formalize($title, justify=>'left');
$formal = formalize($title, :justify<right>, :case<title>);

-Named parameters are optional unless marked with a following C<!>. Default values for
+While named and position arguments may be intermixed, it is suggested
+that you keep all the positionals in one place for clarity unless you
+have a good reason not to. This is likely bad style:
+
+ $formal = formalize(:justify<right>, $title, :case<title>, $date);
+
+Named parameters are optional unless marked with a following C<!>.
+Default values for
optional named parameters are defined in the same way as for positional
parameters, but may depend only on the values of parameters that have
already been bound. (Note that binding happens in the call order,
@@ -949,30 +947,32 @@

Any prefix list operator is considered a variadic operation, so ordinarily
a list operator adds any feed input to the end of its list.
-But sometimes you want to interpolate elsewhere, so any empty contextualizer
-may be used to indicate the target of a feed without the use of a
-temporary array:
-
- foo() ==> say @(), " is what I meant";
- bar() ==> (@@).baz();
-
-Feeding into the C<*> "whatever" term adds extra sources to the next sink:
-
- 0..* ==> *;
- 'a'..* ==> *;
- pidigits() ==> *;
+But sometimes you want to interpolate elsewhere, so any contextualizer
+with C<*> as an argument may be used to indicate the target of a
+feed without the use of a temporary array:
+
+ foo() ==> say @(*), " is what I meant";
+ bar() ==> @@(*).baz();
+
+Feeding into the C<*> "whatever" term sets the source for the next sink.
+To append multiple sources to the next sink, double the angle:
+
+ 0..* ==> *;
+ 'a'..* ==>> *;
+ pidigits() ==>> *;

# outputs "(0, 'a', 3)\n"...
- for zip(@@) { .perl.say }
+ for zip(@@(*)) { .perl.say }

You may use a variable (or variable declaration) as a receiver, in
which case the list value is bound as the "todo" of the variable.
+(The append form binds addition todos to the receiver's todo list.)
Do not think of it as an assignment, nor as an ordinary binding.
Think of it as iterator creation. In the case of a scalar variable,
that variable contains the newly created iterator itself. In the case
of an array, the new iterator is installed as the method for extending
-the array. Unlike with assignment, no clobbering of the array is implied.
-It's therefore more like a push than an assignment.
+the array. As with assignment, the old todo list is clobbered; use the
+append form to avoid that and get push semantics.

In general you can simply think of a receiver array as representing
the results of the chain, so you can equivalently write any of:
@@ -996,12 +996,12 @@
Since the feed iterator is bound into the final variable, the variable
can be just as lazy as the feed that is producing the values.

-Because feeds are bound to arrays with "push" semantics, you can have
+When feeds are bound to arrays with "push" semantics, you can have
a receiver for multiple feeds:

my @foo;
- 0..2 ==> @foo;
- 'a'..'c' ==> @foo;
+ 0..2 ==> @foo;
+ 'a'..'c' ==>> @foo;
say @foo; # 0,1,2,'a','b','c'

Note how the feeds are concatenated in C<@foo> so that C<@foo>
@@ -1012,9 +1012,9 @@
the "multislice" twigil marks a multidimensional array, that is, an
array of slices.

- 0..* ==> @@foo;
- 'a'..* ==> @@foo;
- pidigits() ==> @@foo;
+ 0..* ==> @@foo;
+ 'a'..* ==>> @@foo;
+ pidigits() ==>> @@foo;

for zip(@@foo) { .say }

@@ -1444,7 +1444,9 @@

=item C<of>/C<is of>

-The C<of> type that is the official return type of the routine.
+The C<of> type that is the official return type of the routine. Or you
+can think of "of" as outer/formal. If there is no inner type, the outer
+type also serves as the inner type to constraint the return value.

=item C<will do>

@@ -1662,14 +1664,14 @@
C<return> keyword prevents that interpretation and turns it instead
into a list operator:

- return :x<1>, :y<2>; # two named arguments (if caller uses *)
+ return :x<1>, :y<2>; # two named arguments (if caller uses |)
return ( :x<1>, :y<2> ); # two positional Pair objects

If the function ends with an expression without an explicit C<return>,
that expression is also taken to be a C<Capture>, just as if the expression
were the argument to a C<return> list operator (with whitespace):

- sub f { :x<1> } # named-argument binding (if caller uses *)
+ sub f { :x<1> } # named-argument binding (if caller uses |)
sub f { (:x<1>) } # always just one positional Pair object

On the caller's end, the C<Capture> is interpolated into any new argument list
@@ -1680,7 +1682,9 @@

If any function called as part of a return list asks what its context
is, it will be told it was called in list context regardless of the
-eventual binding of the returned C<Capture>. If that is not the
+eventual binding of the returned C<Capture>. (This is quite
+different from Perl 5, where a C<return> statement always propagates its
+caller's context to its own argument(s).) If that is not the
desired behavior you must coerce the call to an appropriate context,
(or declare the return type of the function to perform such a coercion).
In any event, such a function is called only once at the time the
@@ -1758,7 +1762,7 @@
$ctx = context(Method,1,Method,1) # caller of that 2nd nearest method
$ctx = context(1,Block); # nearest outer context that is block
$ctx = context(Sub,1,Sub,1,Sub); # 3rd nearest sub context
- $ctx = context({ .label eq 'Foo' }); # nearest context whose label is 'Foo'
+ $ctx = context({ .labels.any eq 'Foo' }); # nearest context labeled 'Foo'

Note that this last potentially differs from the answer returned by

@@ -1782,16 +1786,23 @@

.want
.context
+ .caller
+ .my
.file
.line
.subname
- .lookup

-The C<.lookup> method provides access to the lexical namespace in effect
-at the given dynamic context's current position. It may be used to look
-up ordinary lexical variables as well as special compiler variables such
-as C<$?PACKAGE>. It must not be used to change any lexical variable
-that is not marked as C<< context<rw> >>.
+The C<.caller> method is subtly different from the C<caller>
+function. Instead of looking up the current lexically scoped
+by C<.context(&?ROUTINE,1)>, it just looks up the next matching
+C<.context(Routine,1)>.
+
+The C<.my> method provides access to the lexical namespace in effect at
+the given dynamic context's current position. It may be used to look
+up ordinary lexical variables in that lexical scope (not your lexical
+scope) as well as special compiler variables such as C<$?PACKAGE>.
+It must not be used to change any lexical variable that is not marked
+as C<< context<rw> >>.

=head2 The C<want> function

@@ -1840,8 +1851,9 @@
to return. Only declarations with an explicit declarator keyword
(C<sub>, C<submethod>, C<method>, C<macro>, C<regex>, C<token>, and
C<rule>) may be returned from. Statement prefixes such a C<do> and
-C<try> do not fall into that category. You may not use C<return> to
-return from loops, bare blocks, pointy blocks, or quotelike operators
+C<try> do not fall into that category.
+You cannot use C<return> to escape directly into the surrounding
+context from loops, bare blocks, pointy blocks, or quotelike operators
such as C<rx//>; a C<return> within one of those constructs will
continue searching outward for a "proper" routine to return from.
Nor may you return from property blocks such as C<BEGIN> or C<CATCH>
@@ -1899,7 +1911,7 @@

=head2 Temporization

-The C<temp> function temporarily replaces the value of an existing
+The C<temp> macro temporarily replaces the value of an existing
variable, subroutine, context of a function call, or other object in a given scope:

{
@@ -1957,6 +1969,11 @@
say next(); # prints 3; $next == 4
say next(); # prints 4; $next == 5

+Note that C<temp> must be a macro rather than a function because the
+temporization must be arranged before the function causes any state
+changes, and if it were a normal argument to a normal function, the state
+change would be happen before C<temp> got control.
+
Hypothetical variables use the same mechanism, except that the restoring
closure is called only on failure.

@@ -2072,7 +2089,10 @@
!! $n * &?BLOCK($n-1)
};

-C<&?BLOCK.label> contains the label of the current block, if any.
+C<&?BLOCK.labels> contains a list of all labels of the current block.
+This is typically matched by saying
+
+ if &?BLOCK.labels.any eq 'Foo' {...}

If the innermost lexical block happens to be the main block of a C<Routine>,
then C<&?BLOCK> just returns the C<Block> object, not the C<Routine> object
@@ -2419,12 +2439,11 @@
"unless caller" idiom of Perl 5.) In general, you may have only one
semicolon-style declaration that controls the whole file.

-If the dispatch to C<MAIN> fails the C<USAGE> routine is called.
-If there is no such routine, a default message is printed. This
+If an attempted dispatch to C<MAIN> fails, the C<USAGE> routine is called.
+If there is no C<USAGE> routine, a default message is printed. This
usage message is automatically generated from the signature (or
signatures) of C<MAIN>. This message is generated at compile time,
-and hence is available at "mainline" time as the rw property
-C<&USAGE.text>. You may also access it from your own C<USAGE> routine.
+and hence is available at any later time as C<$?USAGE>.

Common Unix command-line conventions are mapped onto the capture
as follows:

Smylers

unread,
Mar 12, 2007, 6:20:12 PM3/12/07
to perl6-l...@perl.org
la...@cvs.perl.org writes:

> Separated clobbering <== ==> from pushy <<== and ==>>
>

> +Feeding into the C<*> "whatever" term sets the source for the next sink.
> +To append multiple sources to the next sink, double the angle:
> +
> + 0..* ==> *;
> + 'a'..* ==>> *;
> + pidigits() ==>> *;

Can you append to something that isn't there? Would it matter if the
first feed also had a double pointy bracket on it?

Smylers

Larry Wall

unread,
Mar 12, 2007, 6:29:44 PM3/12/07
to perl6-l...@perl.org

Doesn't matter, just thought it was a clearer example this way.

Larry

Smylers

unread,
Mar 13, 2007, 4:13:06 AM3/13/07
to perl6-l...@perl.org
Larry Wall writes:

Excellent; that's what I was hoping.

> ... just thought it was a clearer example this way.

Oh, it is!

But using pushy feeds for all of the lines makes it easier to change the
order of the lines (similar to putting a trailing comma after the final
list item in a one-item-per-line list), and I was just checking that
it's permitted.

Smylers

0 new messages