use Config; use File::Basename qw(&basename &dirname); # List explicitly here the variables you want Configure to # generate. Metaconfig only looks for shell variables, so you # have to mention them as if they were shell variables, not # %Config entries. Thus you write # $startperl # to ensure Configure will look for $Config{startperl}. # This forces PL files to create target in same directory as PL file. # This is so that make depend always knows where to find PL derivatives. chdir(dirname($0)); ($file = basename($0)) =~ s/\.PL$//; $file =~ s/\.pl$// if ($^O eq 'VMS' or $^O eq 'os2'); # "case-forgiving" unlink $file if -f $file; open OUT,">$file" or die "Can't create $file: $!"; print "Extracting $file (with variable substitutions)\n"; # In this section, perl variables will be expanded during extraction. # You can use $Config{...} to use Configure variables. print OUT <<"!GROK!THIS!"; $Config{'startperl'} eval 'exec perl -S \$0 "\$@"' if 0; !GROK!THIS! # In the following, perl variables are not expanded during extraction. print OUT <<'!NO!SUBS!'; ########################################################################## # Here starts the actual script # Simple shell for PDL use vars qw($VERSION $HOME $Modules); $VERSION = '1.33'; print "perlDL shell v$VERSION PDL comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. For details, see the file 'COPYING' in the PDL distribution. This is free software and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions, see the same file for details.\n"; # Useful shell variables $PERLDL::ESCAPE = '#'; # Default shell escape $PERLDL::MULTI = 1; # Enable multi-lines by default $PERLDL::NO_EOF = 0; # Disable EOF protection by default $PERLDL::PROMPT = "perldl> "; $PERLDL::PAGER = (exists $ENV{PAGER} ? $ENV{PAGER} : 'more'); # Default output paging program $PERLDL::PAGE = 0; $PERLDL::PAGING = 0; @PERLDL::AUTO = (); $PERLDL::PREPROCESS = undef; # old interface -- disabled @PERLDL::PREPROCESS = (); # new preprocessor pipeline $HOME = $ENV{HOME}; # Useful in shell $HOME = 'c:/Temp' if $HOME eq "" # For want of somewhere better.. and ($^O =~ /win32/i); $,=" "; # Default $Modules = $Modules = ""; # pacify -w sub mypdlconfig { require Config; # pick up perl version info eval 'require PDL::Version' if not defined $PDL::Version::VERSION; eval 'require PDL::Config'; eval "use Data::Dumper"; my $hasdumper = $@ eq "" ? 1 : 0; eval "use PDL::Bad;"; my $bflag = defined($PDL::Bad::Status) && $PDL::Bad::Status; my $txt = "\nSummary of my PDL configuration\n\n"; $txt .= "VERSION: PDL v$PDL::Version::VERSION"; $txt .= " (supports bad values)" if $bflag; $txt .= "\n\n"; if ($hasdumper && defined %PDL::Config) { $txt .= Data::Dumper->Dump([{%PDL::Config}],['%PDL::Config']); } else { $txt .= "Could not obtain \%PDL::Config\n"; } $txt .= Config::myconfig(); # append perl config info } sub preproc_registered ($) { my ($sub) = @_; die "preprocessors must be code references" unless ref $sub eq 'CODE'; return grep ($_ == $sub, @PERLDL::PREPROCESS) > 0; } sub preproc_add ($) { my ($sub) = @_; die "preprocessors must be code references" unless ref $sub eq 'CODE'; push @PERLDL::PREPROCESS, $sub; return $sub; } sub preproc_del ($) { my ($sub) = @_; die "preprocessors must be code references" unless ref $sub eq 'CODE'; die "preprocessor can't be deleted: not installed" unless preproc_registered $sub; @PERLDL::PREPROCESS = grep ($_ != $sub, @PERLDL::PREPROCESS); return $sub; } # Parse ARGV my $read_from_file; while(defined($_ = shift @ARGV)) { if($_ eq "-tk") { print "Using Tk"; eval "use Tk;"; if ($@ eq "") { print " v$Tk::VERSION\n" if defined $Tk::VERSION; # make -w happy } else { print ", sorry can't load module Tk\n"; } next; } elsif(/^-f(.*)/) { my $file = $1; if(0 == length $1) { $file = shift @ARGV; } print "Doing '$file'\n"; do $file; if($@) { die "Initialization error: $@"; } next; } elsif(/^-w$/){ $^W = 1; next; } elsif (/^-(M|m)([\w:]+)(\=\w+)?$/x) { my ($way,$m,@im) = ($1,$2,$3?substr($3,1):()); eval "require $m"; warn, next if $@; if ($way eq 'M') { $m->import(@im); } else { $m->unimport(@im); } } elsif (/^-I (\S*) $/x) { my $dir = $1; $dir = $ARGV[++$arg] if !$dir; if ($dir =~ m{^ \/ }x) { unshift(@INC, $dir); } else { require FindBin; die "Error: can't find myself" if ! $FindBin::Bin; unshift(@INC, "$FindBin::Bin/$dir"); } } elsif (/^-V\s*$/) { print mypdlconfig(); exit 0; } elsif( /^-\s*$/) { $read_from_file = 1; last; } else { print << 'EOP'; Usage: perldl [options] -tk try to load Tk module (Enables readline event-loop processing). -f execute file before starting perldl -w run with warning messages turned-on -m unload module -M load module -I Add to include path. -V print PDL version info (e.g. for a bug report) - Following arguments are files for input. EOP die("Unknown argument $_"); } } my $readlines; if(!$read_from_file and -t STDIN) { eval "use Term::ReadLine"; $readlines = ($@ eq ""); } else { $readlines=0; } my @enabled = (); push @enabled, "ReadLines" if $readlines; eval 'use PDL::NiceSlice'; unless ($@) { my $report = 0; sub report { my $ret = $report; $report = $_[0] if $#_ > -1; return $ret; } my $preproc = sub { my ($txt) = @_; my $new = PDL::NiceSlice::perldlpp($txt); print STDERR "processed $new\n" if report && $new ne $txt; return $new; }; sub trans { preproc_add $preproc unless preproc_registered $preproc; preproc_del $preproc if $#_ > -1 && !$_[0] && preproc_registered $preproc; } sub notrans { trans 0 } trans; # switch on by default push @enabled, "NiceSlice"; } eval "use Text::Balanced"; my $multi_ok = ($@ eq ""); $PERLDL::MULTI = 0 unless($multi_ok); push @enabled,"MultiLines" if $multi_ok; print join(', ',@enabled)," enabled\n" if @enabled > 0; if ( $readlines ){ $PERLDL::TERM = new Term::ReadLine 'perlDL', \*STDIN, \*STDOUT ; if(defined &Tk::DoOneEvent) { # Attempt to use with Tk if(${$PERLDL::TERM->Features}{tkRunning}) { print "Using Tk event loop\n"; $PERLDL::TERM->tkRunning(1); } else { warn("Sorry, cannot use Tk with this version of ReadLine\n"); } } if ( ( -e "$HOME/.perldl_hist" ) && ( open HIST, "<$HOME/.perldl_hist" ) ) { my @allhist = ; close HIST; map s/\n//g , @allhist ; foreach (@allhist) { $PERLDL::TERM->addhistory($_); } } eval <<'EOEND'; sub END { # Save History in $ENV{'HOME'}/.perldl_hist # GetHistory doesn't work on all versions... my @a= $PERLDL::TERM->GetHistory() if $PERLDL::TERM->can('GetHistory'); $#a-- if $a[-1] =~ /^(q$|x$|\s*exit\b|\s*quit\b)/; # chop off the exit command @a= @a[($#a-50)..($#a)] if $#a > 50 ; if( open HIST, ">$HOME/.perldl_hist" ) { print HIST join("\n",@a); close HIST; } else { print " Unable to open \"$HOME/.perldl_hist\"\n"; } } EOEND } sub l { if ($readlines) { my $n = $#_ > -1 ? shift : 20; my @h = $PERLDL::TERM->GetHistory(); my $min = $#h < $n-1 ? 0 : $#h-$n+1; map {print "$_: $h[$_]\n"} ($min..$#h); } } sub page { $PERLDL::PAGE = (defined $_[0] ? $_[0] : 1); } sub nopage { page(0); } sub startpage { if ($PERLDL::PAGE) { open(SAVEOUT, '>&STDOUT'); open(STDOUT, "| $PERLDL::PAGER"); $PERLDL::PAGING = 1; } } sub endpage { if ($PERLDL::PAGING) { close(STDOUT); open(STDOUT, '>&SAVEOUT'); $PERLDL::PAGING = 0; } } sub startup_def { return "PDL/default.pdl" if $^O =~ /win32/i; return "PDL/default.perldlrc"; } # Global and local startup my $startup_file = -e "$HOME/.perldlrc" ? "$HOME/.perldlrc" : startup_def(); print "Reading $startup_file...\n"; eval 'require "'.$startup_file.'"'; my $PDL_OK = ($@ eq ""); if ($PDL_OK) { require PDL::Version if not defined $PDL::Version::VERSION; print "Type 'demo' for online demos\n"; eval "use PDL::Bad;"; my $bflag = defined($PDL::Bad::Status) && $PDL::Bad::Status; if ( $bflag ) { print "Loaded PDL v$PDL::Version::VERSION (supports bad values)\n"; } else { print "Loaded PDL v$PDL::Version::VERSION\n"; } }else{ warn "WARNING: Error loading PDL: '$@' - trying blib. \n"; eval "use blib"; eval 'require "'.$startup_file.'"'; $PDL_OK = ($@ eq ""); if ($PDL_OK) { require PDL::Version if not defined $PDL::Version::VERSION; print "Loaded PDL v$PDL::Version::VERSION\n"; }else{ warn "WARNING: PDL startup not found only plain perl available\n"; eval << 'EOD'; # Fallback eval routine - proper one defined in PDL::Core sub eval_and_report { my $__code = shift; # Can be code ref or string my $__string; $__string = (ref $__code eq "CODE") ? '&$__code()' : $__code; eval $__string; # Use boring eval() which misses some errors return $@; } EOD } } print "\nNote: AutoLoader not enabled ('use PDL::AutoLoader' recommended)\n\n" unless defined($PDL::AutoLoader::Rescan); if (-e 'local.perldlrc') { print "Reading local.perldlrc ...\n"; require 'local.perldlrc' ; } # Short hand for some stuff sub p { local $^W=0; print(@_); } # suppress possible undefined var message # (dirty) my %demos = ( 'pdl' => 'PDL::Demos::General', # have to protect pdl as it means something '3d' => 'PDL::Demos::TriD1', '3d2' => 'PDL::Demos::TriD2', '3dgal' => 'PDL::Demos::TriDGallery', 'tk3d' => 'PDL::Demos::TkTriD_demo', 'pgplot' => 'PDL::Demos::PGPLOT_demo', 'ooplot' => 'PDL::Demos::PGPLOT_OO_demo', # note: lowercase 'bad' => 'PDL::Demos::BAD_demo', 'bad2' => 'PDL::Demos::BAD2_demo', 'transform' => 'PDL::Demos::Transform_demo', 'cartography' => 'PDL::Demos::Cartography_demo' ); sub demo { local $_ = lc $_[0] ; if(/^$/) { print <'}','['=>']','('=>')'); } # Run Text::Balanced on the string with a '{' in front of it, to # make sure that all quoted strings are "embedded" in the outermost "{". # The whitespace works around a short-string bug in extract_bracketed. my $a; my @result; $s =~ s/^\s*\#.*$//mg; # Eliminate comment lines before extract. eval { @result = Text::Balanced::extract_bracketed("{".$s, $delim, $prefix); $a = $@; }; print "a = $a\nreturn = '",join("','",@result),"'\n" if($PERLDL::debug); if($a =~ m/^Did not find/) { # No quotes -- this should never happen and is a syntax error. print STDERR "[Error in parsing: this should never happen!]\n" if($PERLDL::debug); return undef; } elsif($a =~ m/^Unmatched emb\w+ quote \((.)\), de\w+ at offset (\d+)/) { # Embedded quote: try to close it and reparse. $a = $1; return count_tags($s.$1) . $a; } elsif($a =~ m/^Mismatched closing bracket/) { # This is an error condition - return false and let perl parse it return undef; } elsif($a =~ m/^Unmatched opening bracket\(s\)\: \{\.\.(.\.\.)+/) { $a = $1; $a=~ s/\.\.//g; return count_tags($s.$closers{$a}) . $a; } elsif($a =~ m/^Unmatched opening bracket\(s\)\: \{\.\.\,/) { # Should have exactly one unmatched opening bracket. return undef; } elsif(!$a) { return undef; } print STDERR "Unknown error message '$a' from parser...\n" if($PERLDL::debug); return undef; } # # process_input -- this is the central grab-some-input-and-execute it loop. # sub process_input { my $lines; if($PERLDL::MULTI && !$multi_ok) { $PERLDL::MULTI = 0; print STDERR "WARNING: Text::Balanced not present; disabling multi-line parsing.\n"; } # The {} around the do let us get out with 'last' in the EOF case. multiline: { my $cont; $lines = ""; do { local $, = ""; my $prompt = $cont ? "..$cont".(" "x(5-length($cont)))."> " : ((ref $PERLDL::PROMPT) ? &$PERLDL::PROMPT : $PERLDL::PROMPT); if ($readlines) { $_ = $PERLDL::TERM->readline($prompt); }else{ print $prompt if(-t ARGV); # Don't print prompt in pipes $_ = <>; } if(!defined $_) { if($cont) { if( $PERLDL::NO_EOF > 1 && -t STDIN ) { print STDERR "\nEOF ignored. (Close delimiters to end block. \$PERLDL::NO_EOF = $PERLDL::NO_EOF)\n"; } else { last multiline; } } else { if($PERLDL::NO_EOF && -t STDIN ) { print STDERR "EOF ignored. ('q' or 'exit' to quit. \$PERLDL::NO_EOF = $PERLDL::NO_EOF)\n"; } else { exit 0; } } } $lines .= "\n" if($cont); # Make multi-line strings work right. $lines .= $_; print "lines = $lines\n" if($PERLDL::debug); } while( $PERLDL::MULTI && ($cont = count_tags($lines)) ); } $_ = $lines; # Execute the list of auto-code for my $c (@PERLDL::AUTO) { my $mess = eval_and_report($c); warn $mess if $mess; } if(!defined $_ || lc $_ eq 'q' || lc $_ eq 'x' || lc $_ eq 'quit') {exit}; next if /^\s*$/; # Blank line - do nothing s/^\s*\?\?\s*/apropos /; # Make '??' = 'apropos' s/^\s*\?\s*/help /; # Make lone '?' = 'help' if (/^\s*(help|usage|apropos|sig|badinfo|demo)\s+/) { # Allow help foo (no quotes) @t = split; foreach (@t) { s/^["']+//; s/['"]+$//; }; $t[1] = "'".$t[1]."'" if ($#t == 1 && !($t[1] =~ /^\$/)); $_ = join(' ',@t); } if (substr($_,0,1) eq substr($PERLDL::ESCAPE,0,1) and substr($_,0,2) ne '#!') { # Allow escapes, avoid shebang my @lines = split /\n/; system(substr(shift @lines,1)); # Shell escape $_ = join("\n",@lines); next; } else { # Send code to pre-processor filters if defined for my $filter (@PERLDL::PREPROCESS) { $_ = $filter->($_); } # honor the deprecated interface for now if (defined $PERLDL::PREPROCESS && ref($PERLDL::PREPROCESS) eq 'CODE') { preproc_oldwarn() unless $preproc_warned; $_ = &$PERLDL::PREPROCESS($_); } startpage; my $mess = eval_and_report($_); warn $mess if $mess; endpage; } print "\n"; } ###################################################################### ###################################################################### ##### ##### Main loop is here! (Commands not inside any sub!) # check for old usage of PERLDL::PREPROCESS if (defined $PERLDL::PREPROCESS) { preproc_oldwarn(); } $|=1; while(1) { eval {process_input()}; if ($@) { if ($@ =~ /Ctrl-C detected/) { print "Ctrl-C detected\n"; next; } else { print "Unknown error: $@\n exiting...\n"; last; } } } ##### ##### ###################################################################### ###################################################################### # Work routine to eval code and post-process messages # Currently used by 'perldl' shell sub eval_and_report { my $__code = shift; # Can be code ref or string $@ = ""; # clear $@ since we might not execute the eval below ## Compile the code ref to execute. The code gets put inside {} braces ## so that there is a trivial loop (the simple block) for 'last' and 'next' ## to escape from. (Otherwise perl 5.6.1 and 5.8 do a little fandango ## on stack if you type "last" at the shell). --CED 18-Mar-2003 my $__coderef = (ref $__code eq "CODE") ? $__code : eval << "EOD" sub { { $__code; } } EOD ; %@ = (); # Workaround to prevent spurious loss of $@ PDL::Core::myeval( $__coderef ) # Do command with $@ keeping unless($@); # Check that sub compiled (avoids null coderef bug in myeval). if ($@) { my $mess = $@; # Remove surplus parts $mess =~ s/^\s*\(in cleanup\)\s+//; # 'cleanup ...' from Usage:... $mess =~ s/\n\s*\(in cleanup\).*$//; # 'cleanup...'s at end $mess =~ s/\s+at \(eval \d+\) line \d+\.?$//; # at eval ?? line ??. return $mess; # Report error } return ""; } __END__ =head1 NAME perldl - Simple shell for PDL =head1 SYNOPSIS %> perldl perldl> $a=sequence(10) # or any other PDL command %> perldl - pdlscript #!/usr/bin/pdl =head1 DESCRIPTION The program B is a simple shell (written in perl) for interactive use of PDL. perl/PDL commands can simply be typed in - and edited if you have appropriate version of the ReadLines and ReadKeys modules installed. In that case B also supports a history mechanism where the last 50 commands are always stored in the file F<.perldl_hist> in your home directory between sessions. The command C shows you the last C commands you typed where C defaults to 20. e.g.: % perldl ReadLines enabled perldl> $a = rfits "foo.fits" BITPIX = -32 size = 88504 pixels Reading 354016 bytes BSCALE = && BZERO = perldl> imag log($a+400) Displaying 299 x 296 image from 4.6939525604248 to 9.67116928100586 ... =head2 Command-line options =over 4 =item -tk Load Tk when starting the shell (the perl Tk module, which is available from CPAN must be installed). This enables readline event loop processing. =item -f file Loads the file before processing any user input. Any errors during the execution of the file are fatal. =item -w Runs with warning messages (i.e. the normal perl C<-w> warnings) turned-on. =item -M module Loads the module before processing any user input. Compare corresponding C switch. =item -m module Unloads the module before processing any user input. =item -I directory Adds directory to the include path. (i.e. the @INC array) Compare corresponding C switch. =item -V Prints a summary of PDL config. This information should be included with any PDL bug report. Compare corresponding C switch. =back =head2 Terminating C A C session can be terminated with any of the commands C, C or the shorthands C or C. =head2 Terminating commands (Ctrl-C handling) Commands executed within C can be terminated prematurely using C (or whichever key sequence sends an INT signal to the process on your terminal). Provided your PDL code does not ignore Cs this should throw you back at the C command prompt: perldl> $result = start_lengthy_computation() Ctrl-C detected perldl> =head2 Shortcuts and aliases =over =item * The shell aliases C

to be a convenient short form of C, e.g. perldl> p ones 5,3 [ [1 1 1 1 1] [1 1 1 1 1] [1 1 1 1 1] ] =item * C and C are short-hand for C. =item * C lists the history buffer perldl> l # list last 20 commands perldl> l 40 # list last 40 commands =item * C is an alias for L perldl> ? wpic =item * C is an alias for L perldl> ?? PDL::Doc =item * L, L, L and L: all words after these commands are used verbatim and not evaluated by perl. So you can write, e.g., help help instead of help 'help' =back =head2 The startup file F<~/.perldlrc> If the file F<~/.perldlrc> is found it is sourced at start-up to load default modules, set shell variables, etc. If it is NOT found the distribution file F is read instead. This loads various modules considered useful by default, and which ensure compatibility with v1.11. If you don't like this and want a more streamlined set of your own favourite modules simple create your own F<~/.perldlrc> To set even more local defaults the file F (in the current directory) is sourced if found. This lets you load modules and define subroutines for the project in the current directory. The name is chosen specfically because it was found hidden files were NOT wanted in these circumstances. The startup file should normally include "use PDL::AutoLoader;", as many of the nicer interactive features won't work without it. =head2 Shell variables Shell variables: (I: if you don't like the defaults change them in F<~/.perldlrc>) =over =item * $PERLDL::ESCAPE - default value '#' Any line starting with this character is treated as a shell escape. The default value is chosen because it escapes the code from the standard perl interpreter. =item * $PERLDL::PAGER - default value C External program to filter the output of commands. Using C prints output one screenful at a time. On Unix, setting C and $PERLDL::PAGER to C will keep a record of the output generated by subsequent perldl commands (without paging). =item * $PERLDL::PROMPT - default value 'perldl> ' Enough said But can also be set to a subroutine reference, e.g. $PERLDL::PROMPT = sub {join(':',(gmtime)[2,1,0]).'> '} puts the current time into the prompt. =item * $PERLDL::MULTI - default value 1 If this is set to a true value, then perldl will parse multi-line perl blocks: your input will not be executed until you finish a line with no outstanding group operators (such as quotes, blocks, parenthesis, or brackets) still active. Continuation lines have a different prompt that shows you what delimiters are still active. Note that this is not (yet!) a complete perl parser. In particular, Text::Balanced appears to be able to ignore quoting operatores like C within a line, but not to be able to extend them across lines. Likewise, there is no support for the '<<' operator. Multiline conventional strings and {}, [], and () groupings are well supported. =item * $PERLDL::NO_EOF - default value 0 Protects against accidental use of "^D" from the terminal. If this is set to a true value, then you can't accidentally exit perldl by typing "^D". If you set it to a value larger than 1 (and PERLDL::MULTI is set), then you can't use "^D" to exit multiline commands either. If you're piping commands in from a file or pipe, this variable has no effect. =item * $HOME The user's home directory =item * $PERLDL::TERM This is the Term::ReadLine object associated with the perldl shell. It can be used by routines called from perldl if your command is interactive. =back =head2 Executing scripts from the C prompt A useful idiom for developing perldl scripts or editing functions on-line is perldl> # emacs script & -- add perldl code to script and save the file perldl> do 'script' -- substitute your favourite window-based editor for 'emacs' (you may also need to change the '&' on non-Unix systems). Running "do 'script'" again updates any variables and function definitions from the current version of 'script'. =head2 Automatically execute your own hooks The variable @PERLDL::AUTO is a simple list of perl code strings and/or code reference. It is used to define code to be executed automatically every time the user enters a new line. A simple example would be to print the time of each command: perldl> push @PERLDL::AUTO,'print scalar(gmtime),"\n"' perldl> print zeroes(3,3) Sun May 3 04:49:05 1998 [ [0 0 0] [0 0 0] [0 0 0] ] perldl> print "Boo" Sun May 3 04:49:18 1998 Boo perldl> Or to make sure any changes in the file 'local.perldlrc' are always picked up :- perldl> push @PERLDL::AUTO,"do 'local.perldlrc'" This code can of course be put *in* 'local.perldlrc', but be careful :-) [Hint: add C to above to ensure it only gets done once!] Another example application is as a hook for Autoloaders (e.g. PDL::AutoLoader) to add code too which allows them to automatically re-scan their files for changes. This is extremely convenient at the interactive command line. Since this hook is only in the shell it imposes no inefficiency on PDL scripts. Finally note this is a very powerful facility - which means it should be used with caution! =head2 Executing perldl scripts from the command line PDL scripts are just perl scripts that happen to use PDL (and possibly PDL::NiceSlice). But for the truly lazy, perldl can be invokes as a script interpreter. Because perldl is itself an interpreted perl script, most unices won't allow you to say "#!/usr/bin/perldl" at the top of your script. Instead, say "#!/usr/bin/pdl" and your script will be executed exactly as if you typed it, line-by-line, into the perldl shell. WARNING: perldl executes scripts slightly differently than perl would, and its behavior is dependent on your own quirky configuration. Use with caution. =head2 Command preprocessing NOTE: This feature is used by default by L. See below for more about slicing at the C prompt In some cases, it is convenient to process commands before they are sent to perl for execution. For example, this is the case where the shell is being presented to people unfamiliar with perl but who wish to take advantage of commands added locally (eg by automatically quoting arguments to certain commands). *I*: The preprocessing interface has changed from earlier versions! The old way using C<$PERLDL::PREPROCESS> will still work but is strongly deprecated and might go away in the future. You can enable preprocessing by registering a filter with the C function. C takes one argument which is the filter to be installed. A filter is a Perl code reference (usually set in a local configuration file) that will be called, with the current command string as argument, just prior to the string being executed by the shell. The modified string should be returned. Note that you can make C completely unusable if you fail to return the modified string; quitting is then your only option. Filters can be removed from the preprocessing pipeline by calling C with the filter to be removed as argument. To find out if a filter is currently installed in the preprocessing pipeline use C: perldl> preproc_add $myfilter unless preproc_registered $myfilter; Previous versions of C used the variable C<$PERLDL::PREPROCESS>. This will still work but should be avoided. Please change your scripts to use the C etc functions. The following code would check for a call to function 'mysub' and bracket arguments with qw. $filter = preproc_add sub { my $str = shift; $str =~ s/^\s+//; # Strip leading space if ($str =~ /^mysub/) { my ($command, $arguments) = split(/\s+/,$str, 2); $str = "$command qw( $arguments )" if (defined $arguments && $arguments !~ /^qw/); }; # Return the input string, modified as required return $str; }; This would convert: perldl> mysub arg1 arg2 to perldl> mysub qw( arg1 arg2 ) which Perl will understand as a list. Obviously, a little more effort is required to check for cases where the caller has supplied a normal list (and so does not require automatic quoting) or variable interpolation is required. You can remove this preprocessor using the C function which takes one argument (the filter to be removed, it must be the same coderef that was returned from a previous C call): perldl> preproc_del $filter; An example of actual usage can be found in the C script. Look at the function C to see how the niceslicing preprocessor is enabled/disabled. =head2 C and L L introduces a more convenient slicing syntax for piddles. In current versions of C niceslicing is enabled by default (if the required CPAN modules are installed on your machine). At startup C will let you know if niceslicing is enabled. The startup message will contain info to this end, something like this: perlDL shell v1.XX PDL comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. For details, see the file 'COPYING' in the PDL distribution. This is free software and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions, see the same file for details. ReadLines, NiceSlice enabled Reading /home/csoelle/.perldlrc... Type 'demo' for online demos Loaded PDL v2.XX When you get such a message that indicates C is enabled you can use the enhanced slicing syntax: perldl> $a = sequence 10; perldl> p $a(3:8:2) For details consult L. L installs a filter in the preprocessing pipeline (see above) to enable the enhanced slicing syntax. You can use a few commands in the C shell to switch this preprocessing on or off and also explicitly check the substitutions that the NiceSlice filter makes. You can switch the L filter on and off by typing perldl> trans # switch niceslicing on and perldl> notrans # switch niceslicing off respectively. The filter is on by default. To see how your commands are translated switch reporting on: perldl> report 1; perldl> p $a(3:8:2) processed p $a->nslice([3,8,2]) [3 5 7] Similarly, switch reporting off as needed perldl> report 0; perldl> p $a(3:8:2) [3 5 7] Reporting is off by default. =cut !NO!SUBS! close OUT; chmod 0555, $file;