Time::HiRes::sleep takes multiple args, incompatible behavior with core sleep()

[tiniestpudding]

Module: Time::HiRes

Description

hi, friends! it's me! i've come to discuss a most damning misbehavior.

Time::HiRes::sleep takes more than one argument, which makes it incompatible with "core" sleep() and leads to unexpected behavior.

Steps to Reproduce

use Time::HiRes 'sleep'; # comment me to fix problem

$| = 1;

my $condition = 0;

while()
{
    print '.';
    sleep 1, next unless $condition;
}

Expected behavior

1 second sleep before before looping, as will happen with "core" sleep.

Perl configuration

lmk if you really want this, i don't think it's relevant since the bug happens exactly everywhere, because of being located in the Time::HiRes::sleep() sub.

pudding's two cents

ok so i understand that fixing this The Correct Way, so that Time::HiRes::sleep only takes a single argument like "core" sleep does, will effectively alter/break current behavior for software written the way mine and my example is, but i really insist that this is the necessary solution. we must not sweep this under the carpet by just changing the documentation to match the broken Time::HiRes::sleep, or insisting that we start wrapping everything in parentheses. the function only uses the first argument. it should only accept one argument. it should be syntactically compatible with "core" sleep().

i also want to shout out to my main man MAUKE on the libera IRC network for figuring this out.

[xenu]

In other words, the prototype of Time::HiRes::sleep doesn't match CORE::sleep. The prototype of Time::HiRes::sleep is ;@, while the prototype of CORE::sleep is ;$.

I suspect the discrepancy wasn't intentional, Time::HiRes::sleep doesn't specify its prototype so it was generated automatically from its XS signature.

Should we change it? I'm not sure... It would be a mildly breaking change, but it's also likely to uncover real bugs. I lean "yes". We are early in the release cycle, so we could do this now, and then we would have plenty of time to evaluate the impact of the change.

[Leont]

Yeah, this is a good example of why PROTOTYPES: ENABLE is a terrible idea. If you really want to use prototypes you should be explicit about it