NAME

Compile::Generators - Python-like generator subroutines for Perl

SYNOPSIS

use Compile::Generators;

sub gen_range :generator {
    my ($min, $max) = @_;
    my $num = $min;
    my $incr;

    while (not defined $max or $num < $max) {
        $incr = shift || 1;
        yield $num;
        $num += $incr;
    }
}

my $range = gen_range(50, 100);
my $i = gen_range(1);

while (my $num = $range->($i->())) {
    print "\$num => $num\n";
}

When run, this prints:

$num => 50
$num => 51
$num => 53
$num => 56
$num => 60
$num => 65
$num => 71
$num => 78
$num => 86
$num => 95

DESCRIPTION

Compile::Generators lets you define subroutines that return their code as a generator. You can then call the generator over and over until it returns an empty list. The generator can yield (return) a value and then when you call it again it resumes right after the yield.

USAGE

Any subroutine marked with the a :generator attribute will have its code wrapped into a closure and returned by the subroutine. Any yield statements will be replace with code to return/resume at that point.

Any code before the first blank line in the sub will not be a part of the closure but will be executed when the sub is actually called. This means that any variables that are defined before the blank line will be closed by the generator sub.

This module uses Module::Compile to compile the generators. Look inside the .pmc to see what is really happening.

Since this module uses goto statements, you cannot yield inside a for loop. Perl does not allow this. However you can use while statements.

Currently a yield statement needs to be a simple statement on it's own line, since this gets parsed and replaced by a return/goto-label.

See the tests for examples.

AUTHOR

Ingy döt Net <ingy@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2006. Ingy döt Net. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html