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What's MY.line?

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From:
Chip Salzenberg
Date:
July 9, 2002 23:45
Subject:
What's MY.line?
Message ID:
20020710015025.GA11948@perlsupport.com
In (re?)examining the Apocalypses, I've found something that confuses me a
bit.  A2 refers to C<MY> as a "pseudopackage" and says:

    __LINE__   becomes   MY.line
    __FILE__      "      MY.file

There is also Apocalypsal reference to C<%MY> as a name for the current
lexical symbol table.

First:

   1. Is there any technical connection between C<MY> and C<%MY>?
      I don't think there has to be.  (Though I suppose you could
      play entertaining tricks by manipulating C<%MY{MY}>.)

With regard to C<MY>:

   2. What are "line" and "file"?  Properties?  Class variables?
      (Probably not class variables since C<MY> is not called a class.)

And with regard to C<%MY>: Each function in Perl 5 has a single PAD that
could correspond to C<%MY>, except that PAD entries are indexed by a
combination of name and statement range.  So:

   3. Is C<%MY> intended to reflect the PAD?

    3a. If so, how can one distinguish among the e.g. many C<my $foo>
        variables declared within the current function?

    3b. If not, how are lexical adjustments to C<%MY> unwound?  Or are
        they?  If they're not, I can actually see the idea that could be
        part of the base utility of C<%MY>.

     3b1. But if they're not unwound, then the changes that *are* unwound
          don't live in C<%MY>!  For example:

             if foo()  { my $x = 1; print $x }
             if bar()  { my $x = 2; print $x }

          The comings and goings of C<$x> in this code can't be
          represented in C<%MY> (unless answer #3 above is "yes",
          in which case this branch of questions is void).

Larry?  Damian?  Allison?  ("Chief?  McCloud?")
-- 
Chip Salzenberg         - a.k.a.  -        <chip@pobox.com>
         "It furthers one to have somewhere to go."

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