=head1 NAME Sub::Curried - automatically curried subroutines =head1 SYNOPSIS curry add_n_to ($n, $val) { return $n+$val; } my $add_10_to = add_n_to( 10 ); say $add_10_to->(4); # 14 # but you can also say add_n_to(10,4); # also 14 # or more traditionally say add_n_to(10)->(4); =head1 DESCRIPTION Currying and Partial Application come from the heady world of functional programming, but are actually useful techniques. Partial Application is used to progressively specialise a subroutine, by pre-binding some of the arguments. Partial application is the generic term, that also encompasses the concept of plugging in "holes" in arguments at arbitrary positions. Currying is more specifically the application of arguments progressively from left to right until you have enough of them. =head1 USAGE Define a curried subroutine using the C keyword. You should list the arguments to the subroutine in parentheses. This isn't a sophisticated signature parser, just a common separated list of scalars (or C<@array> or C<%hash> arguments, which will be returned as a I). curry greet ($greeting, $greetee) { return "$greeting $greetee"; } my $hello = greet("Hello"); say $hello->("World"); # Hello World =head2 Currying Currying applies the arguments from left to right, returning a more specialised function as it goes until all the arguments are ready, at which point the sub returns its value. curry three ($one,$two,$three) { return $one + $two * $three } three(1,2,3) # normal call - returns 7 three(1) # a new subroutine, with $one bound to the number 1 ->(2,3) # call the new sub with these arguments three(1)->(2)->(3) # You could call the curried sub like this, # instead of commas (1,2,3) What about calling with I arguments? By extension that would return a function exactly like the original one... but with I arguments prebound (i.e. it's an alias!) my $fn = three; # same as my $fn = \&three; =head2 Anonymous curries Just like you can have anonymous subs, you can have anonymous curried subs: my $greet = curry ($greeting, $greetee) { ... } =head2 Composition Curried subroutines are I. This means that we can create a new subroutine that takes the result of the second subroutine as the input of the first. Let's say we wanted to expand our greeting to add some punctuation at the end: curry append ($r, $l) { $l . $r } curry prepend ($l, $r) { $l . $r } my $ciao = append('!') << prepend('Ciao '); say $ciao->('Bella'); # Ciao Bella! How does this work? Follow the pipeline in the direction of the EE... First we prepend 'Ciao ' to get 'Ciao Bella', then we pass that to the curry that appends '!'. The overloaded syntax is provided by C which is distributed with this module as a base class. =cut package Sub::Curried; use base 'Sub::Composable'; use strict; use warnings; use Carp 'croak'; use Devel::Declare; use Sub::Name; use Sub::Current; use B::Hooks::EndOfScope; use Devel::BeginLift; our $VERSION = '0.10'; # cargo culted sub import { my $class = shift; my $caller = caller; Devel::Declare->setup_for( $caller, { curry => { const => \&parser } } ); # would be nice to sugar this no strict 'refs'; *{$caller.'::curry'} = sub (&) {}; } sub mk_my_var { my ($name) = @_; my ($vsigil, $vname) = /^([\$%@])(\w+)$/ or die "Bad sigil: $_!"; # not croak, this is in compilation phase my $shift = $vsigil eq '$' ? 'shift' : "${vsigil}{+shift}"; return qq[my $vsigil$vname = $shift;]; } sub trim { s/^\s*//; s/\s*$//; $_; } sub get_decl { my $decl = shift || ''; map trim, split /,/ => $decl; } # Stolen from Devel::Declare's t/method-no-semi.t / Method::Signatures { our ($Declarator, $Offset); sub skip_declarator { $Offset += Devel::Declare::toke_move_past_token($Offset); } sub skipspace { $Offset += Devel::Declare::toke_skipspace($Offset); } sub strip_name { skipspace; if (my $len = Devel::Declare::toke_scan_word($Offset, 1)) { my $linestr = Devel::Declare::get_linestr(); my $name = substr($linestr, $Offset, $len); substr($linestr, $Offset, $len) = ''; Devel::Declare::set_linestr($linestr); return $name; } return; } sub strip_proto { skipspace; my $linestr = Devel::Declare::get_linestr(); if (substr($linestr, $Offset, 1) eq '(') { my $length = Devel::Declare::toke_scan_str($Offset); my $proto = Devel::Declare::get_lex_stuff(); Devel::Declare::clear_lex_stuff(); $linestr = Devel::Declare::get_linestr(); substr($linestr, $Offset, $length) = ''; Devel::Declare::set_linestr($linestr); return $proto; } return; } sub shadow { my $pack = Devel::Declare::get_curstash_name; Devel::Declare::shadow_sub("${pack}::${Declarator}", $_[0]); } sub inject_if_block { my $inject = shift; skipspace; my $linestr = Devel::Declare::get_linestr; if (substr($linestr, $Offset, 1) eq '{') { substr($linestr, $Offset+1, 0) = $inject; Devel::Declare::set_linestr($linestr); } } sub check_args { my ($name, $exp, $actual) = @_; die "$name, expected $exp args but got $actual" if $actual>$exp; } sub parser { local ($Declarator, $Offset) = @_; skip_declarator; my $name = strip_name; my $proto = strip_proto; my @decl = get_decl($proto); # We nest each layer of currying in its own sub. # if we were passed more than one argument, then we call more than one layer. # We use the closing brace '}' trick as per monads, but also place the calling # logic here. my $exp_check = sub { my $exp= scalar @decl; sub { my $name = $name ? qq('$name') : 'undef'; my $ret = qq[ Sub::Curried::check_args($name,$exp,scalar \@_); ]; $exp--; return $ret; } }->(); my $installer = sub (&) { my $f = shift; bless $f, __PACKAGE__; if ($name) { no strict 'refs'; *{$name} = subname $name => $f; () } else { $f; } }; my $si = scope_injector_call(', "Sub::Curried"; ($f,@r)=$f->($_) for @_; wantarray ? ($f,@r) : $f}'); my $inject = (@decl ? 'return Sub::Current::ROUTINE unless @_;' : '') . join qq[ my \@r; my \$f = bless sub { $si; ], map { $exp_check->() . mk_my_var($_); } @decl; if (defined $name) { my $lift_id = Devel::BeginLift->setup_for_cv($installer) if $name; $inject = scope_injector_call(";Devel::BeginLift->teardown_for_cv($lift_id);").$inject; } inject_if_block($inject); if (defined $name) { $name = join('::', Devel::Declare::get_curstash_name(), $name) unless ($name =~ /::/); } shadow($installer); } # Set up the parser scoping hacks that allow us to omit the final # semicolon sub scope_injector_call { my $pkg = __PACKAGE__; my $what = shift || ';'; return " BEGIN { B::Hooks::EndOfScope::on_scope_end { ${pkg}::add_at_end_of_scope('$what') } }; "; } sub add_at_end_of_scope { my $what = shift || ';'; my $linestr = Devel::Declare::get_linestr; my $offset = Devel::Declare::get_linestr_offset; substr($linestr, $offset, 0) = $what; Devel::Declare::set_linestr($linestr); } } =head1 BUGS No major bugs currently open. Please report any bugs via RT or email, or ping me on IRC (osfameron on irc.perl.org and freenode) =head1 SEE ALSO L provides the magic (yes, there's a teeny bit of code generation involved, but it's not a global filter, rather a localised parsing hack). There are several modules on CPAN that already do currying or partial evaluation: =over 4 =item * L - Filter based module prototyping the Perl 6 system =item * L - seems rather complex, with concepts like blackholes and antispices. Odd. =item * L - creates a currying variant of all existing subs automatically. Very odd. =item * L - partial evaluation with named arguments (as hash keys). Has some great debugging hooks (the function is a blessed object which displays what the current bound keys are). =item * L - exactly what we want minus the sugar. (The attribute has to declare how many arguments it's expecting) =back =head1 AUTHOR and LICENSE (c)2008-2009 osfameron@cpan.org This module is distributed under the same terms and conditions as Perl itself. Please submit bugs to RT or shout at me on IRC (osfameron on #london.pm on irc.perl.org) A git repo is available at L =cut 1;