[LA.pm] coding guidlines, inline functions

[Ofer Nave]

On Tue, 7 Dec 2004, Kevin Scaldeferri wrote:

> On Dec 7, 2004, at 11:08 AM, Ofer Nave wrote:
> 
> > 2) inline functions
> >
> > Is there any analog in perl to C inline functions (i.e., macros)?  In
> > other words, is there an elegant way in perl to make things modular for
> > code maintenance purposes, but empower the perl parser/compiler to
> > optimize away unnecessary function call overhead?
> 
> So-called "constant functions" are optimized away.  These look like:
> 
> sub pi () {
>    return 3.14;
> }
> 
> The empty prototype is required and the return value must be 
> recognizable as constant at compile time.
> 
> This is basically what the 'use constant' pragma does.
> 
> Other than that, I think you have to wait for Perl 6.  Or get really 
> brave with source filters.

Yup, knew about use constant.  Though lately I've been using the Readonly 
module from CPAN, cause I like consistent sigil usage ($PI).

I've never used source filters.  Familiar with the concept, but not any 
particular implementation.  Is there a conventional way to do it?  Seems 
there's a lot of optimization you could do by automunging the source 
before compilation.  Maybe all programs should be wrapped in an eval.  :)

-ofer