This and other RFCs are available on the web at
http://dev.perl.org/rfc/
=head1 TITLE
Proposal to utilize C<*> as the prefix to magic subroutines
=head1 VERSION
Maintainer: Jonthan Scott Duff
Date: 7 Aug 2000
Version: 1
Mailing List: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Number: 59
=head1 ABSTRACT
Perl has always claimed the ALL-CAPS names for itself, I propose we
give them back to the programmer.
=head1 DESCRIPTION
Perl steals subroutine names from the programmer. By prefixing the
Perl-special subroutines with a character that is not a valid prefix
for Perl programmers, we separate what belongs to Perl and what
belongs to the user.
With the proliferation of special subroutine names (BEGIN, END, INIT,
CHECK, etc.) the all capital subroutine names available to the
programmer has steadily shrunk. Rather than stealing subroutines from
the programmer, we should create a space just for Perl.
sub *BEGIN {
# do compile-time stuff
# Perl-special
}
sub BEGIN {
# No relation to the former. Purely user space.
# The user may have his/her own reasons for naming his
# subroutines this way. (e.g., it fits the conception model
# that the software is build upon/around/through)
}
The visual distinction lets the programmer know that something special
is happening here and that this is not your average run-of-the-mill
subroutine.
Another area where could be useful is in conjunction with Damian
Conway's C<want()> proposal. As his proposal currently stands, the
programmer can not name a package LIST or SCALAR and use it with the
proposed C<want()>.
=head2 Examples
switch ([want]) {
case '*LIST' { return @array; }
case '*SCALAR' { return $foo; }
case 'LIST' { return $MyListObj; }
}
sub *BEGIN { ... }
sub *END { ... }
sub *INIT { ... }
sub *AUTOLOAD { ... }
sub *TIESCALAR { ... }
sub *FETCH { ... }
=head2 Potential problems
Makes Perl-special subroutines different from user subroutines. This
implies yet another special case.
=head1 IMPLEMENTATION
Um ... that's up to the internals people.
=head1 REFERENCES
Perl 5.6.0 documentation
RFC 21 (v1): Replace C<wantarray> with a generic C<want> function
