NAME
Keyword::Simple - define new keywords in pure Perl
SYNOPSIS
package Some::Module;
use Keyword::Simple;
sub import {
# create keyword 'provided', expand it to 'if' at parse time
Keyword::Simple::define 'provided', sub {
my ($ref) = @_;
substr($$ref, 0, 0) = 'if'; # inject 'if' at beginning of parse buffer
};
}
sub unimport {
# lexically disable keyword again
Keyword::Simple::undefine 'provided';
}
'ok'
DESCRIPTION
Warning: This module is still new and experimental. The API may change in future versions. The code may be buggy.
This module lets you implement new keywords in pure Perl. To do this, you need to write a module and call Keyword::Simple::define
in your import
method. Any keywords defined this way will be available in the lexical scope that's currently being compiled.
Functions
Keyword::Simple::define
-
Takes two arguments, the name of a keyword and a coderef. Injects the keyword in the lexical scope currently being compiled. For every occurrence of the keyword, your coderef will be called with one argument: A reference to a scalar holding the rest of the source code (following the keyword).
You can modify this scalar in any way you like and after your coderef returns, perl will continue parsing from that scalar as if its contents had been the real source code in the first place.
Keyword::Simple::undefine
-
Takes one argument, the name of a keyword. Disables that keyword in the lexical scope that's currently being compiled. You can call this from your
unimport
method to make theno Foo;
syntax work.
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
This module depends on the pluggable keyword API introduced in perl 5.12. Older versions of perl are not supported.
Every new keyword is actually a complete statement by itself. The parsing magic only happens afterwards. This means that e.g. the code in the "SYNOPSIS" actually does this:
provided ($foo > 2) {
...
}
# expands to
; if
($foo > 2) {
...
}
The ;
represents a no-op statement, the if
was injected by the Perl code, and the rest of the file is unchanged.
This also means your new keywords can only occur at the beginning of a statement, not embedded in an expression.
Keywords in the replacement part of a s//.../e
substitution aren't handled correctly and break parsing.
There are barely any tests.
SUPPORT AND DOCUMENTATION
After installing, you can find documentation for this module with the perldoc
command.
perldoc Keyword::Simple
You can also look for information at https://metacpan.org/pod/Keyword::Simple.
To see a list of open bugs, visit https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Keyword-Simple.
To report a new bug, send an email to bug-Keyword-Simple [at] rt.cpan.org
.
AUTHOR
Lukas Mai, <l.mai at web.de>
COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2012, 2013 Lukas Mai.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or the Artistic License.
See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.