S04-control.pod

=encoding utf8

=head1 TITLE

Synopsis 4: Blocks and Statements

=head1 AUTHORS

    Larry Wall <larry@wall.org>

=head1 VERSION

    Created: 19 Aug 2004

    Last Modified: 3 Jul 2009
    Version: 81

This document summarizes Apocalypse 4, which covers the block and
statement syntax of Perl.

=head1 The Relationship of Blocks and Declarations

Every block is a closure.  (That is, in the abstract, they're all
anonymous subroutines that take a snapshot of their lexical scope.)
How a block is invoked and how its results are used are matters of
context, but closures all work the same on the inside.

Blocks are delimited by curlies, or by the beginning and end of the
current compilation unit (either the current file or the current
C<eval> string).  Unlike in Perl 5, there are (by policy) no implicit
blocks around standard control structures.  (You could write a macro
that violates this, but resist the urge.)  Variables that mediate
between an outer statement and an inner block (such as loop variables)
should generally be declared as formal parameters to that block.  There
are three ways to declare formal parameters to a closure.

    $func = sub ($a, $b) { .print if $a eq $b };  # standard sub declaration
    $func = -> $a, $b { .print if $a eq $b };     # a "pointy" block
    $func = { .print if $^a eq $^b }              # placeholder arguments

A bare closure (except the block associated with a conditional statement)
without placeholder arguments that uses C<$_>
(either explicitly or implicitly) is treated as though C<$_> were a
formal parameter:

    $func = { .print if $_ };   # Same as: $func = -> $_ { .print if $_ };
    $func("printme");

In any case, all formal parameters are the equivalent of C<my> variables
within the block.  See S06 for more on function parameters.

Except for such formal parameter declarations, all lexically scoped
declarations are visible from the point of declaration to the end of
the enclosing block.  Period.  Lexicals may not "leak" from a block to any
other external scope (at least, not without some explicit aliasing
action on the part of the block, such as exportation of a symbol
from a module).  The "point of declaration" is the moment the compiler
sees "C<my $foo>", not the end of the statement as in Perl 5, so

    my $x = $x;

will no longer see the value of the outer C<$x>; you'll need to say
either

    my $x = $OUTER::x;

or

    my $x = OUTER::<$x>;

instead.

If you declare a lexical twice in the same scope, it is the same lexical:

    my $x;
    my $x;

By default the second declaration will get a compiler warning.
You may suppress this by modifying the first declaration
with C<proto>:

    my proto $x;
    ...
    while my $x = @x.shift {...}              # no warning
    while my $x = @x.shift {...}              # no warning

If you've referred to C<$x> prior to the first declaration, and the compiler
tentatively bound it to C<$OUTER::x>, then it's an error to declare it, and
the compiler is required to complain at that point.  If such use can't
be detected because it is hidden in an eval, then it is erroneous, since
the C<eval()> compiler might bind to either C<$OUTER::x> or the subsequently
declared "C<my $x>".

As in Perl 5, "C<our $foo>" introduces a lexically scoped alias for
a variable in the current package.

The new C<constant> declarator introduces an "our"-scoped name
for a compile-time constant, either a variable or named value, which
may be initialized with a pseudo-assignment:

    constant Num $pi = 3;
    constant Num π  = atan2(2,2) * 4;

The initializing expression is evaluated at C<BEGIN> time.

There is a new C<state> declarator that introduces a lexically scoped
variable like C<my> does, but with a lifetime that persists for the
life of the closure, so that it keeps its value from the end of one
call to the beginning of the next.  Separate clones of the closure
get separate state variables.

Perl 5's "C<local>" function has been renamed to C<temp> to better
reflect what it does.  There is also a C<let> function that sets a
hypothetical value.  It works exactly like C<temp>, except that the
value will be restored only if the current block exits unsuccessfully.
(See Definition of Success below for more.)  C<temp> and C<let> temporize
or hypotheticalize the value or the variable depending on whether you
do assignment or binding.  One other difference from Perl 5 is that
the default is not to undefine a variable.  So

    temp $x;

causes C<$x> to start with its current value.  Use

    temp undefine $x;

to get the Perl 5 behavior.

Note that temporizations that are undone upon scope exit must be
prepared to be redone if a continuation within that scope is taken.

=head1 The Relationship of Blocks and Statements

The return value of a block is the value of its final statement.
(This is subtly different from Perl 5's behavior, which was to return
the value of the last expression evaluated, even if that expression
was just a conditional.)

=head1 Statement-ending blocks

A line ending with a closing brace "C<}>", followed by nothing but
whitespace or comments, will terminate a statement if an end of statement
can occur there.  That is, these two statements are equivalent:

    my $x = sub { 3 }
    my $x = sub { 3 };

End-of-statement cannot occur within a bracketed expression, so
this still works:

    my $x = [
        sub { 3 },  # this comma is not optional
        sub { 3 }   # the statement won't terminate here
    ];

However, a hash composer may never occur at the end of a line.  If the
parser sees anything that looks like a hash composer at the end of
the line, it fails with "closing hash curly may not terminate line"
or some such.

    my $hash = {
        1 => { 2 => 3, 4 => 5 },  # OK
        2 => { 6 => 7, 8 => 9 }   # ERROR
    };

Because subroutine declarations are expressions, not statements,
this is now invalid:

    sub f { 3 } sub g { 3 }     # two terms occur in a row

But these two are valid:

    sub f { 3 }; sub g { 3 };
    sub f { 3 }; sub g { 3 }    # the trailing semicolon is optional

Though certain control statements could conceivably be parsed in a
self-contained way, for visual consistency all statement-terminating
blocks that end in the middle of a line I<must> be terminated by
semicolon unless they are naturally terminated by some other statement
terminator:

    while yin() { yang() }  say "done";      # ILLEGAL
    while yin() { yang() }; say "done";      # okay, explicit semicolon
    @yy := [ while yin() { yang() } ];       # okay within outer [...]
    while yin() { yang() } ==> sort          # okay, ==> separates statements

=head1 Conditional statements
X<if>X<unless>

The C<if> and C<unless> statements work much as they do in
Perl 5.  However, you may omit the parentheses on the conditional:

    if $foo == 123 {
        ...
    }
    elsif $foo == 321 {
        ...
    }
    else {
        ...
    }

If the final statement is a conditional which does not execute any
branch, the return value is C<Nil>.

The C<unless> statement does not allow an C<elsif> or C<else> in Perl 6.

The value of the conditional expression may be optionally bound to
a closure parameter:

    if    testa() -> $a { say $a }
    elsif testb() -> $b { say $b }
    else          -> $b { say $b }

Note that the value being evaluated for truth and subsequently bound is
not necessarily a value of type C<Bool>.  (All normal types in Perl may
be evaluated for truth.  In fact, this construct would be relatively
useless if you could bind only boolean values as parameters, since
within the closure you already know whether it evaluated to true
or false.)  Binding within an C<else> automatically binds the value
tested by the previous C<if> or C<elsif>, which, while known to be
false, might nevertheless be an I<interesting> value of false.  (By similar
reasoning, an C<unless> allows binding of a false parameter.)

An explicit placeholder may also be used:

    if blahblah() { return $^it }

However, use of C<$_> with a conditional statement's block is I<not>
considered sufficiently explicit to turn a 0-ary block into a 1-ary
function, so both these methods use the same invocant:

    if .haste { .waste }

(Contrast with a non-conditional statement such as:

    for .haste { .waste }

where each call to the block would bind a new invocant for the
C<.waste> method, each of which is likely different from the original
invocant to the C<.haste> method.)

Conditional statement modifiers work as in Perl 5.  So do the
implicit conditionals implied by short-circuit operators.  Note though that
the contents of parens or brackets is parsed as a semicolon-separated list of <I>statements</I>,
so you can say:

    @x = 41, (42 if $answer), 43;

and that is equivalent to:

    @x = 41, ($answer ?? 42 !! Nil), 43

=head1 Loop statements

Looping statement modifiers are the same as in Perl 5 except that,
for ease of writing list comprehensions, a looping statement modifier
is allowed to contain a single conditional statement modifier:

    @evens = ($_ * 2 if .odd for 0..100);

Loop modifiers C<next>, C<last>, and C<redo> also work as in Perl 5.
However, the labelled forms use method call syntax: C<LABEL.next>, etc.
The C<.next> and C<.last> methods take an optional argument giving
the final value of that loop iteration.  So the old C<next LINE>
syntax is still allowed but is really short for C<next LINE:> using
indirect object syntax.  Any block object can be used, not just labels,
so to return a value from this iteration of the current block you can say:

    &?BLOCK.next($retval);

[Conjecture: a bare C<next($retval)> function could be taught to do
the same, as long as C<$retval> isn't a loop label.  Presumably multiple
dispatch could sort this out.]

There is no longer a C<continue> block.  Instead, use a C<NEXT> block
within the body of the loop.  See below.

The value of a loop statement is the list of values from each
iteration.  Iterations that return a null list (such as by calling
C<next> with no extra return arguments) interpolate no values in the
resulting list.  (This list is actually a two-dimensional list of
C<Capture>s (a "slice") with dimensional boundaries at each iteration.
Normal list context ignores these boundaries and flattens the list.
Slice context turns the captures into subarrays, so an iteration
returning a null list does show up as a null subarray when viewed as
a slice.)

For finer-grained control of which iterations return values, use
C<gather> and C<take>.

Since the final expression in a subroutine returns its value, it's
possible to accidentally return a loop's return value when you were
only evaluating the loop for its side effects.  If you do not wish
to accidentally return a list from the final loop statement in a
subroutine, place an explicit return statement after it, or declare
a return type of C<Void>.

=head2 The C<while> and C<until> statements
X<while>X<until>

The C<while> and C<until> statements work as in Perl 5, except that you
may leave out the parentheses around the conditional:

    while $bar < 100 {
        ...
    }

As with conditionals, you may optionally bind the result of the
conditional expression to a parameter of the block:

    while something() -> $thing {
        ...
    }

    while something() { ... $^thing ... }

Nothing is ever bound implicitly, however, and many conditionals would
simply bind C<True> or C<False> in an uninteresting fashion.  This mechanism
is really only good for objects that know how to return a boolean
value and still remain themselves.  In general, for most iterated
solutions you should consider using a C<for> loop instead (see below).
In particular, we now generally use C<for> to iterate filehandles.

=head2 The C<repeat> statement
X<repeat>X<while>X<next>X<last>X<redo>

Unlike in Perl 5, applying a statement modifier to a C<do> block is
specifically disallowed:


    do {
        ...
    } while $x < 10;    # ILLEGAL

Instead, you should write the more Pascal-like C<repeat> loop:

    repeat {
        ...
    } while $x < 10;

or equivalently:

    repeat {
        ...
    } until $x >= 10;

Unlike Perl 5's C<do-while> loop, this is a real loop block now, so
C<next>, C<last>, and C<redo> work as expected.  The loop conditional
on a C<repeat> block is required, so it will be recognized even if you
put it on a line by its own:

    repeat
    {
        ...
    }
    while $x < 10;

However, that's likely to be visually confused with a following
C<while> loop at the best of times, so it's also allowed to put the
loop conditional at the front, with the same meaning. (The C<repeat>
keyword forces the conditional to be evaluated at the end of the loop,
so it's still C's C<do-while> semantics.)  Therefore, even under GNU style
rules, the previous example may be rewritten into a very clear:

    repeat while $x < 10
      {
        ...
      }

or equivalently:

    repeat until $x >= 10
      {
        ...
      }

As with an ordinary C<while>, you may optionally bind the result of
the conditional expression to a parameter of the block:

    repeat -> $thing {
        ...
    } while something();

or

    repeat while something() -> $thing {
        ...
    }

Since the loop executes once before evaluating the condition, the
bound parameter will be undefined that first time through the loop.

=head2 The general loop statement
X<loop>

The C<loop> statement is the C-style C<for> loop in disguise:

    loop ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) {
        ...
    }

As in C, the parentheses are required if you supply the 3-part spec; however,
the 3-part loop spec may be entirely omitted to write an infinite loop.
That is,

    loop {...}

is equivalent to the Cish idiom:

    loop (;;) {...}

=head2 The C<for> statement
X<for>X<zip>X<Z>X<STDIN>X<$*IN>X<lines>

There is no C<foreach> statement any more. It's always spelled C<for>
in Perl 6, so it always takes a list as an argument:

    for @foo { .print }

As mentioned earlier, the loop variable is named by passing a parameter
to the closure:

    for @foo -> $item { print $item }

Multiple parameters may be passed, in which case the list is traversed
more than one element at a time:

    for %hash.kv -> $key, $value { print "$key => $value\n" }

To process two arrays in parallel use the C<zip> function to generate a
list that can be bound to the corresponding number of parameters:

    for zip(@a;@b) -> $a, $b { print "[$a, $b]\n" }
    for @a Z @b -> $a, $b { print "[$a, $b]\n" }        # same thing

The list is evaluated lazily by default, so instead of using a C<while>
to read a file a line at a time as you would in Perl 5:

    while (my $line = <STDIN>) {...}

in Perl 6 you should use a C<for> instead:

    for $*IN.lines -> $line {...}

This has the added benefit of limiting the scope of the C<$line>
parameter to the block it's bound to.  (The C<while>'s declaration of
C<$line> continues to be visible past the end of the block.  Remember,
no implicit block scopes.)  It is also possible to write

    while $*IN.get -> $line {...}

However, this is likely to fail on autochomped filehandles, so use
the C<for> loop instead.

Note also that Perl 5's special rule causing

    while (<>) {...}

to automatically assign to C<$_> is not carried over to Perl 6.  That
should now be written:

    for lines() {...}

which is short for

    for lines($*ARGFILES) {...}

Arguments bound to the formal parameters of a pointy block are by
default readonly within the block.  You can declare a parameter
read/write by including the "C<is rw>" trait.  The following treats
every other value in C<@values> as modifiable:

    for @values -> $even is rw, $odd { ... }

In the case where you want all your parameters to default to C<rw>,
you may use the visually suggestive double-ended arrow to indicate that
values flow both ways:

    for @values <-> $even, $odd { ... }

This is equivalent to

    for @values -> $even is rw, $odd is rw { ... }

If you rely on C<$_> as the implicit parameter to a block,
then C<$_> is considered read/write by default.  That is,
the construct:

    for @foo {...}

is actually short for:

    for @foo <-> $_ {...}

so you can modify the current list element in that case.

When used as statement modifiers on implicit blocks (thunks), C<for>
and C<given> privately temporize the current value of C<$_> for the
left side of the statement and restore the original value at loop exit:

    $_ = 42;
    .say             # 42
    .say for 1,2,3;  # 1,2,3
    .say;            # 42

The previous value of C<$_> is not available within the loop.  If you
want it to be available, you must rewrite it as an explicit block
using curlies:

    { say OUTER::<$_>, $_ } for 1,2,3;  # 421,422,423

No temporization is necessary with the explicit form since C<$_> is a
formal parameter to the block.  Likewise, temporization is never needed
for C<< statement_control:<for> >> because it always calls a closure.

=head2 The do-once loop

In Perl 5, a bare block is deemed to be a do-once loop.  In Perl 6,
the bare block is not a do-once.  Instead C<do {...}> is the do-once
loop (which is another reason you can't put a statement
modifier on it; use C<repeat> for a test-at-the-end loop).

For any statement, prefixing with a C<do> allows you to
return the value of that statement and use it in an expression:

    $x = do if $a { $b } else { $c };

This construct only allows you to attach a single statement to the end
of an expression.  If you want to continue the expression after the
statement, or if you want to attach multiple statements, you must either
use the curly form or surround the entire expression in brackets of some sort:

    @primesquares = (do $_ if prime($_) for 1..100) »**» 2;

Since a bare expression may be used as a statement, you may use C<do>
on an expression, but its only effect is to function as an unmatched
left parenthesis, much like the C<$> operator in Haskell.  That is,
precedence decisions do not cross a C<do> boundary, and the missing
"right paren" is assumed at the next statement terminator or unmatched
bracket.  A C<do> is unnecessary immediately after any opening bracket as
the syntax inside brackets is a semicolon-separated list of statements,
so the above can in fact be written:

    @primesquares = ($_ if prime($_) for 1..100) »**» 2;

This basically gives us list comprehensions as rvalue expressions:

    (for 1..100 { $_ if prime($_)}).say

Another consequence of this is that any block just inside a
left parenthesis is immediately called like a bare block, so a
multidimensional list comprehension may be written using a block with
multiple parameters fed by a C<for> modifier:

    @names = (-> $name, $num { "$name.$num" } for 'a'..'zzz' X 1..100);

or equivalently, using placeholders:

    @names = ({ "$^name.$^num" } for 'a'..'zzz' X 1..100);

Since C<do> is defined as going in front of a statement, it follows
that it can always be followed by a statement label.  This is particularly
useful for the do-once block, since it is offically a loop and can take
therefore loop control statements.

=head2 Statement-level bare blocks

Although a bare block occuring as a single statement is no longer
a do-once loop, it still executes immediately as in Perl 5, as if it
were immediately dereferenced with a C<.()> postfix, so within such a
block C<CONTEXT::> refers to the scope surrounding the block.  But unlike
an explicit call, C<CALLER::> doesn't count it as a routine boundary.

If you wish to return a closure from a function, you must use an
explicit prefix such as C<return> or C<sub> or C<< -> >>.

    sub f1
    {
        # lots of stuff ...
        { say "I'm a closure." }
    }

    my $x1= f1;  # fall-off return is result of the say, not the closure.

    sub f2
    {
        # lots of stuff ...
        return { say "I'm a closure." }
    }

    my $x2= f2;  # returns a Block object.

Use of a placeholder parameter in statement-level blocks triggers a
syntax error, because the parameter is not out front where it can be
seen.  However, it's not an error when prefixed by a C<do>, or when
followed by a statement modifier:

    # Syntax error: Statement-level placeholder block
    { say $^x };

    # Not a syntax error, though $x doesn't get the argument it wants
    do { say $^x };

    # Not an error: Equivalent to "for 1..10 -> $x { say $x }"
    { say $^x } for 1..10;

    # Not an error: Equivalent to "if foo() -> $x { say $x }"
    { say $^x } if foo();

=head2 The C<gather> statement prefix
X<gather>X<take>

A variant of C<do> is C<gather>.  Like C<do>, it is followed by a
statement or block, and executes it once.  Unlike C<do>, it evaluates
the statement or block in void context; its return value is instead
specified by calling the C<take> list prefix operator one or more times
within the dynamic scope of the C<gather>.  The C<take> function's
signature is like that of C<return>; it merely captures the C<Capture>
of its argments without imposing any additional constraints (in the
absence of context propagation by the optimizer).  The value returned
by the C<take> to its own context is that same C<Capture> object (which
is ignored when the C<take> is in void context).  Regardless of the
C<take>'s context, the C<Capture> object is also added to the list of
values being gathered, which is returned by the C<gather> in the form
of a lazy slice, with each slice element corresponding to one C<take>
capture.  (A list of C<Capture>s is lazily flattened in normal list context,
but you may "unflatten" it again with a C<@@()> contextualizer.)

Because C<gather> evaluates its block or statement in void context,
this typically causes the C<take> function to be evaluated in void
context.  However, a C<take> function that is not in void context
gathers its arguments I<en passant> and also returns them unchanged.
This makes it easy to keep track of what you last "took":

    my @uniq = gather for @list {
        state $previous = take $_;
        next if $_ === $previous;
        $previous = take $_;
    }

The C<take> function essentially has two contexts simultaneously, the
context in which the C<gather> is operating, and the context in which the
C<take> is operating.  These need not be identical contexts, since they
may bind or coerce the resulting captures differently:

    my @y;
    @x = gather for 1..2 {          # @() context for list of captures
        my $x = take $_, $_ * 10;   # $() context for individual capture
        push @y, $x;
    }
    # @x contains 4 Ints:  1,10,2,20
    # @y contains 2 Captures: (1,10),(2,20)

Likewise, we can just remember the gather's result by binding and
later coerce it:

    $c := gather for 1..2 {
        take $_, $_ * 10;
    }
    # @$c produces 1,10,2,20 -- flatten fully into a list of Ints.
    # @@$c produces (1,10),(2,20) -- list of Captures, a 2-D list.
    # $$c produces ((1,10),(2,20)) -- the saved Capture itself as one item in item context.

Note that the C<take> itself is in void context in this example because
the C<for> loop is in void context.

A C<gather> is not considered a loop, but it is easy to combine with a loop
statement as in the examples above.

If any function called as part of a C<take> list asks what its context
is, it will be told it was called in list context regardless of the
eventual binding of the returned C<Capture>.  If that is not the
desired behavior you must coerce the call to an appropriate context.
In any event, such a function is called only once at the time the
C<Capture> object is generated, not when it is bound (which could
happen more than once).

=head2 The C<lift> statement prefix
X<lift>

When writing generic multi routines you often want to write a bit of
code whose meaning is dependent on the context of the caller.  It's
somewhat like virtual methods where the actual call depends on the type
of the invocant, but here the "invocant" is really the lexical scope of
the caller, and the virtual calls are name bindings.  Within a lift,
special rules apply to how names are looked up.  Only names defined
in the lexical scope of the immediately surrounding routine are considered concrete.
All other names (including implicit names of operators) are looked up
in the lexical scope of the caller when we actually know who the caller
is at run time.  (Note the caller can vary from call to call!)

This applies to anything that needs to be looked up at compile time, including
names of variables, and named values such as types and subs.

Through this mechanism, a generic multi can redirect execution to
a more specific version, but the candidate list for this redirection
is determined by the caller, not by the lexical scope of the multi,
which can't see the caller's lexical scope except through the CALLER::
pseudo package.  For example, Perl forces generic C<eq> to coerce to
string comparison, like this:

    proto infix:<eq> (Any $a, Any $b)   { lift ~$a eq ~$b }            # user's eq, user's ~
    multi infix:<eq> (Whatever, Any $b) { -> $a { lift $a eq $b } }    # user's eq
    multi infix:<eq> (Any $a, Whatever) { -> $b { lift $a eq $b } }    # user's eq
    multi infix:<eq> (&f:($), Any $b)   { -> $a { lift f($a) eq $b } } # user's eq
    multi infix:<eq> (Str $a, Str $b)   { !Str::leg($a, $b) }          # primitive leg, primitive !


Note that in each piece of lifted code there are references to
variables defined in the multi, such as C<$a>, C<$b>, and C<&f>.
These are taken at face value.  Everything else within a lift is
assumed to mean something in the caller's context.  (This implies
that there are some errors that would ordinarily be found at
compile time that cannot be found until we know what the caller's
lexical scope looks like at run time.  That's okay.)

=head2 Other C<do>-like forms
X<do>

Other similar forms, where a keyword is followed by code to be controlled by it, may also take bare statements,
including C<try>, C<contend>, C<async>, and C<lazy>.  These constructs
establish a dynamic scope without necessarily establishing a lexical
scope.  (You can always establish a lexical scope explicitly by using
the block form of argument.)  As statement introducers, all these
keywords must be followed by whitespace.  (You can say something
like C<try({...})>, but then you are calling the C<try()> function
using function call syntax instead, and since Perl does not supply
such a function, it will be assumed to be a user-defined function.)
For purposes of flow control, none of these forms are considered loops,
but they may easily be applied to a normal loop.

Note that any construct in the statement_prefix category defines
special syntax.  If followed by a block it does not parse as a
list operator or even as a prefix unary; it will never look for any
additional expression following the block.  In particular,

    foo( try {...}, 2, 3 )

calls the C<foo> function with three arguments.  And

    do {...} + 1

add 1 to the result of the do block.  On the other hand, if a
statement_prefix is followed by a non-block statement, all nested
blockless statement_prefixes will terminate at the same statement
ending:

    do do do foo(); bar 43;

is parsed as:

    do { do { do { foo(); }}}; bar(43);


=head1 Switch statements
X<given>X<when>X<switch>X<case>X<default>

A switch statement is a means of topicalizing, so the switch keyword
is the English topicalizer, C<given>.  The keyword for individual
cases is C<when>:

    given EXPR {
        when EXPR { ... }
        when EXPR { ... }
        default { ... }
    }

The current topic is always aliased to the special variable C<$_>.
The C<given> block is just one way to set the current topic, but
a switch statement can be any block that sets C<$_>, including a
C<for> loop (assuming one of its loop variables is bound to C<$_>)
or the body of a method (if you have declared the invocant as C<$_>).
So switching behavior is actually caused by the C<when> statements in
the block, not by the nature of the block itself.  A C<when> statement
implicitly does a "smart match" between the current topic (C<$_>) and
the argument of the C<when>.  If the smart match succeeds, C<when>'s
associated block is executed, and the innermost surrounding block
that has C<$_> as one of its formal parameters (either explicit
or implicit) is automatically broken out of.  (If that is not the
block you wish to leave, you must use the C<LABEL.leave> method (or some
other control exception such as C<return> or C<next>) to
be more specific, since the compiler may find it difficult to guess
which surrounding construct was intended as the actual topicalizer.)
The value of the inner block is returned as the value of the outer
block.

If the smart match fails, control passes to the next statement
normally, which may or may not be a C<when> statement.  Since C<when>
statements are presumed to be executed in order like normal statements,
it's not required that all the statements in a switch block be C<when>
statements (though it helps the optimizer to have a sequence of
contiguous C<when> statements, because then it can arrange to jump
directly to the first appropriate test that might possibly match.)

The default case:

    default {...}

is exactly equivalent to

    when * {...}

Because C<when> statements are executed in order, the default must
come last.  You don't have to use an explicit default--you can just
fall off the last C<when> into ordinary code.  But use of a C<default>
block is good documentation.

If you use a C<for> loop with a parameter named C<$_> (either
explicitly or implicitly), that parameter can function as the topic
of any C<when> statements within the loop.

You can explicitly break out of a C<when> block (and its surrounding
topicalizer block) early using the C<break> verb.  More precisely,
it leaves the innermost block outside the C<when> that uses C<$_>
as one of its formal parameters, either explicitly or implicitly.
It does this essentially by going to the end of the block and
returning normally from that block.  In other words, a break (either
implicit or explicit) is assumed to indicate success, not failure.

You can explicitly leave a C<when> block and go to the next statement
following the C<when> by using C<continue>.  (Note that, unlike C's
idea of "falling through", subsequent C<when> conditions are evaluated.
To jump into the next C<when> block without testing its condition,
you must use a C<goto>.)

If you have a switch that is the main block of a C<for> loop, and
you break out of the switch either implicitly or explicitly (that is,
the switch "succeeds"), control merely goes to the end of that block,
and thence on to the next iteration of the loop.  You must use C<last>
(or some more violent control exception such as C<return>) to break
out of the entire loop early.  Of course, an explicit C<next> might
be clearer than a C<break> if you really want to go directly to the
next iteration.  On the other hand, C<break> can take an optional
argument giving the value for that iteration of the loop.  As with
the C<.leave> method, there is also a C<.break> method to break from a
labelled block functioning as a switch:

    OUTER.break($retval)

There is a C<when> statement modifier, but it does not have any
break semantics.  That is,

    doit() when 42;

is exactly equivalent to

    doit() if $_ ~~ 42;

=head1 Exception handlers
X<CATCH>

Unlike many other languages, Perl 6 specifies exception handlers by
placing a C<CATCH> block I<within> that block that is having its exceptions
handled.

The Perl 6 equivalent to Perl 5's C<eval {...}> is C<try {...}>.
(Perl 6's C<eval> function only evaluates strings, not blocks.)
A C<try> block by default has a C<CATCH> block that handles all
exceptions by ignoring them.  If you define a C<CATCH> block within
the C<try>, it replaces the default C<CATCH>.  It also makes the C<try>
keyword redundant, because any block can function as a C<try> block
if you put a C<CATCH> block within it.

An exception handler is just a switch statement on an implicit topic
supplied within the C<CATCH> block.  That implicit topic is the current
exception object, also known as C<$!>.  Inside the C<CATCH> block, it's
also bound to C<$_>, since it's the topic.  Because of smart matching,
ordinary C<when> statements are sufficiently powerful to pattern
match the current exception against classes or patterns or numbers
without any special syntax for exception handlers.  If none of the
cases in the C<CATCH> handles the exception, the exception is rethrown.
To ignore all unhandled exceptions, use an empty C<default> case.
(In other words, there is an implicit C<die $!> just inside the end
of the C<CATCH> block.  Handled exceptions break out past this implicit
rethrow.)

A C<CATCH> block sees the lexical scope in which it was defined, but
its caller is the dynamic location that threw the exception.  That is,
the stack is not unwound until some exception handler chooses to
unwind it by "handling" the exception in question.  So logically,
if the C<CATCH> block throws its own exception, you would expect the
C<CATCH> block to catch its own exception recursively forever.  However,
a C<CATCH> must not behave that way, so we say that a C<CATCH> block
never attempts to handle any exception thrown within its own dynamic scope.
(Otherwise the C<die> in the previous paragraph would never work.)

=head1 Control Exceptions

All abnormal control flow is, in the general case, handled by the
exception mechanism (which is likely to be optimized away in specific
cases.)  Here "abnormal" means any transfer of control outward that
is not just falling off the end of a block.  A C<return>,
for example, is considered a form of abnormal control flow, since it
can jump out of multiple levels of closures to the end of the scope
of the current subroutine definition.  Loop commands like C<next>
are abnormal, but looping because you hit the end of the block is not.
The implicit break of a C<when> block is abnormal.

A C<CATCH> block handles only "bad" exceptions, and lets control
exceptions pass unhindered.  Control exceptions may be caught with a
C<CONTROL> block.  Generally you don't need to worry about this unless
you're defining a control construct.  You may have one C<CATCH> block
and one C<CONTROL> block, since some user-defined constructs may wish to
supply an implicit C<CONTROL> block to your closure, but let you define
your own C<CATCH> block.

A C<return> always exits from the lexically surrounding sub
or method definition (that is, from a function officially declared
with the C<sub>, C<method>, or C<submethod> keywords).  Pointy blocks
and bare closures are transparent to C<return>, in that the C<return>
statement still means C<&?ROUTINE.leave> from the C<Routine> that existed
in dynamic scope when the closure was cloned.

It is illegal to return from the closure if that C<Routine> no longer exists
in the current chain of contexts.

To return a value (to the dynamical caller) from any pointy block or bare closure, you either
just let the block return the value of its final expression, or you
can use C<leave>, which comes in both function and method forms.
The function (or listop) form always exits from the innermost block,
returning its arguments as the final value of the block exactly as
C<return> does.  The method form will leave any block in the dynamic
scope that can be named as an object and that responds to the C<.leave>
method.

Hence, the C<leave> function:

    leave(1,2,3)

is really just short for:

    &?BLOCK.leave(1,2,3)

To return from your immediate caller, you can say:

    caller.leave(1,2,3)

Further contexts up the caller stack may be located by use of the
C<context> function:

    context({ .labels.any eq 'LINE' }).leave(1,2,3);

By default the innermost dynamic scope matching the selection criteria
will be exited.  This can be a bit cumbersome, so in the particular
case of labels, the label that is already visible in the current lexical
scope is considered a kind of pseudo object specifying a potential
dynamic context.  If instead of the above you say:

    LINE.leave(1,2,3)

it was always exit from your lexically scoped C<LINE> loop, even
if some inner dynamic scope you can't see happens to also have that
label.  If the C<LINE> label is visible but you aren't actually in
a dynamic scope controlled by that label, an exception is thrown.
(If the C<LINE> is not visible, it would have been caught earlier at
compile time since C<LINE> would likely be a bareword.)

In theory, any user-defined control construct can catch any control
exception it likes.  However, there have to be some culturally enforced
standards on which constructs capture which exceptions.  Much like
C<return> may only return from an "official" subroutine or method,
a loop exit like C<next> should be caught by the construct the user
expects it to be caught by.  In particular, if the user labels a loop
with a specific label, and calls a loop control from within the lexical
scope of that loop, and if that call mentions the outer loop's label,
then that outer loop is the one that must be controlled.  In other words,
it first tries this form:

    LINE.leave(1,2,3)

If there is no such lexically scoped outer loop in the current subroutine,
then a fallback search is made outward through the dynamic scopes in
the same way Perl 5 does.  (The difference between Perl 5 and Perl 6
in this respect arises only because Perl 5 didn't have user-defined
control structures, hence the sub's lexical scope was I<always>
the innermost dynamic scope, so the preference to the lexical scope
in the current sub was implicit.  For Perl 6 we have to make this
preference explicit.)  So this fallback is more like the C<context>
form we saw earlier.

Warnings are produced in Perl 6 by throwing a resumable control
exception to the outermost scope, which by default prints the
warning and resumes the exception by extracting a resume continuation
from the exception, which must be supplied by the C<warn()> function
(or equivalent).  Exceptions are not resumable in Perl 6 unless
the exception object does the C<Resumable> role.  (Note that fatal
exception types can do the C<Resumable> role even if thrown via
C<fail()>--when uncaught they just hit the outermost fatal handler
instead of the outermost warning handler, so some inner scope has to
explicitly treat them as warnings and resume them.)

Since warnings are processed using the standard control exception
mechanism, they may be intercepted and either suppressed or fatalized
anywhere within the dynamic scope by supplying a suitable C<CONTROL>
block.  This dynamic control is orthogonal to any lexically scoped
warning controls, which merely decide whether to call C<warn()>
in the first place.

As with calls to C<return>, the warning control exception is an
abstraction that the compiler is free to optimize away (along with the
associated continuation) when the compiler or runtime can determine
that the semantics would be preserved by merely printing out the
error and going on.  Since all exception handlers run in the dynamic
context of the throw, that reduces to simply returning from the C<warn>
function most of the time.

=head1 The goto statement
X<goto>

In addition to C<next>, C<last>, and C<redo>, Perl 6 also supports
C<goto>.  As with ordinary loop controls, the label is searched for
first lexically within the current subroutine, then dynamically outside
of it.  Unlike with loop controls, however, scanning a scope includes
a scan of any lexical scopes included within the current candidate
scope.  As in Perl 5, it is possible to C<goto> into a lexical scope,
but only for lexical scopes that require no special initialization
of parameters.  (Initialization of ordinary variables does not
count--presumably the presence of a label will prevent code-movement
optimizations past the label.)  So, for instance, it's always possible
to C<goto> into the next case of a C<when> or into either the "then"
or "else" branch of a conditional.  You may not go into a C<given>
or a C<for>, though, because that would bypass a formal parameter
binding (not to mention list generation in the case of C<for>).
(Note: the implicit default binding of an outer C<$_> to an inner C<$_>
can be emulated for a bare block, so that doesn't fall under the
prohibition on bypassing formal binding.)

=head1 Exceptions

As in Perl 5, many built-in functions simply return C<undef> when you
ask for a value out of range, or the function fails somehow.  Perl 6
has C<Failure> objects, any of which refers to an unthrown C<Exception>
object in C<$!> and knows whether it has been handled or not.  C<$!>
contains one main exception, the most recent, plus an internal list
of unhandled exceptions that may be accessed via the C<.pending> method.
Whenever a new exception is stored in C<$!>, it becomes the new main
exception, and if the old main exception is not marked as handled,
it is pushed onto the internal list of unhandled exceptions.

If you test a C<Failure> for C<.defined> or C<.true>, it causes C<$!>
to mark the main exception as I<handled>; the exception acts as a
relatively harmless undefined value thereafter.  Any other use of the
C<Failure> object to extract a normal value will throw its associated
exception immediately.  (The C<Failure> may, however, be stored in
any container whose type allows the C<Failure> role to be mixed in.)
The C<.handled> method returns C<False> on failures that have not
been handled.  It returns C<True> for handled exceptions and for
all non-C<Failure> objects. (That is, it is an C<Object> method,
not a C<Failure> method.  Only C<Failure> objects need to store the
actual status however; other types just return C<True>.)

The C<.handled> method is C<rw>, so you may mark an exception as handled
by assigning C<True> to it.  Note however that

    $!.handled = 1;

marks only the main exception as handled.  To mark them all as handled
you must access them individually via the C<.pending> method.

A bare C<die>/C<fail> takes C<$!> as the default argument specifying
the exception to be thrown or propagated outward to the caller's C<$!>.

Because the contextual variable C<$!> contains all exceptions collected
in the current lexical scope, saying C<die $!> will rethrow all those
exceptions as the new thrown exception, keeping the same structure of
main exception and list of unhandled exceptions.  (The C<$!> seen in a
C<CATCH> block is specially bound to this in-flight exception as the
block's initial value for C<$!>, but it may be modified by additional
failures as can any other block's C<$!> value.)  A C<fail> likewise
moves all C<$!> exceptions up into C<< CALLER::<$!> >> before
returning the current exception as normal return of a C<Failure>.

At scope exit, C<$!> discards all handled exceptions from itself,
then if there are any remaining unhandled exceptions, either as the
main exception or as any listed unhandled exception, it calls C<die>
to throw those exceptions as a single new exception, which may then
be caught with a C<CATCH> block in the current (or caller's) scope.
The new main exception is the most recent one, with any older unhandled
exceptions attached as pending.

You can cause built-ins to automatically throw exceptions on failure using

    use fatal;

The C<fail> function responds to the caller's C<use fatal> state.
It either returns an unthrown exception, or throws the exception.
Before you get too happy about this pragma, note that Perl 6 contains
various parallel processing primitives that will tend to get blown
up prematurely by thrown exceptions.  Unthrown exceptions are meant
to provide a failsoft mechanism in which failures can be treated
as data and dealt with one by one, without aborting execution
of what may be perfectly valid parallel computations.  If you
I<don't> deal with the failures as data, then the block exit
semantics will eventually trigger a thrown exception.

In any case, the overriding design principle here is that no
unhandled exception is ever dropped on the floor, but propagated
outward through subsequent C<$!> variables until it is handled.  If
that never happens, the implicit outermost exception handler will
eventually decide to abort and print all unhandled exceptions found
in the C<$!> that it is responsible for.

=head1 Closure traits

A C<CATCH> block is just a trait of the closure containing it.  Other
blocks can be installed as traits as well.  These other blocks are
called at various times, and some of them respond to various control
exceptions and exit values:

      BEGIN {...}*      at compile time, ASAP, only ever runs once
      CHECK {...}*      at compile time, ALAP, only ever runs once
       INIT {...}*      at run time, ASAP, only ever runs once
        END {...}       at run time, ALAP, only ever runs once

      START {...}*      on first ever execution, once per closure clone

      ENTER {...}*      at every block entry time, repeats on loop blocks.
      LEAVE {...}       at every block exit time
       KEEP {...}       at every successful block exit, part of LEAVE queue
       UNDO {...}       at every unsuccessful block exit, part of LEAVE queue

      FIRST {...}*      at loop initialization time, before any ENTER
       NEXT {...}       at loop continuation time, before any LEAVE
       LAST {...}       at loop termination time, after any LEAVE

        PRE {...}       assert precondition at every block entry, before ENTER
       POST {...}       assert postcondition at every block exit, after LEAVE

      CATCH {...}       catch exceptions, before LEAVE
    CONTROL {...}       catch control exceptions, before LEAVE

Those marked with a C<*> can also be used within an expression:

    my $compiletime = BEGIN { localtime };
    our $temphandle = START { maketemp() };

As with other statement prefixes, these value-producing constructs
may be placed in front of either a block or a statement:

    my $compiletime = BEGIN localtime;
    our $temphandle = START maketemp();

This can be particularly useful to expose a lexically scoped
declaration to the surrounding context.  Hence these declare the same
variables with the same scope as the preceding example, but run the
statements as a whole at the indicated time:

    BEGIN my $compiletime = localtime;
    START our $temphandle = maketemp();

(Note, however, that the value of a variable calculated at compile
time may not persist under run-time cloning of any surrounding closure.)

Code that is generated at run time can still fire off C<CHECK>
and C<INIT> blocks, though of course those blocks can't do things that
would require travel back in time.

Some of these also have corresponding traits that can be set on variables.
These have the advantage of passing the variable in question into
the closure as its topic:

    my $r will start { .set_random_seed() };
    our $h will enter { .rememberit() } will undo { .forgetit() };

Apart from C<CATCH> and C<CONTROL>, which can only occur once, most
of these can occur multiple times within the block.  So they aren't
really traits, exactly--they add themselves onto a list stored in the
actual trait (except for C<START>, which executes inline).  So if you
examine the C<ENTER> trait of a block, you'll find that it's really
a list of closures rather than a single closure.

The semantics of C<INIT> and C<START> are not equivalent to each
other in the case of cloned closures.  An C<INIT> only runs once for
all copies of a cloned closure.  A C<START> runs separately for each
clone, so separate clones can keep separate state variables:

    our $i = 0;
    ...
    $func = { state $x will start { $x = $i++ }; dostuff($i) };

But C<state> automatically applies "start" semantics to any initializer,
so this also works:

    $func = { state $x = $i++; dostuff($i) }

Each subsequent clone gets an initial state that is one higher than the
previous, and each clone maintains its own state of C<$x>, because that's
what C<state> variables do.

Even in the absence of closure cloning, C<INIT> runs before the
mainline code, while C<START> puts off the initialization till the
last possible moment, then runs exactly once, and caches its value
for all subsequent calls (assuming it wasn't called in void context,
in which case the C<START> is evaluated once only for its side effects).
In particular, this means that C<START> can make use of any parameters
passed in on the first call, whereas C<INIT> cannot.

All of these trait blocks can see any previously declared lexical
variables, even if those variables have not been elaborated yet when
the closure is invoked (in which case the variables evaluate to an
undefined value.)

Note: Apocalypse 4 confused the notions of C<PRE>/C<POST> with C<ENTER>/C<LEAVE>.
These are now separate notions.  C<ENTER> and C<LEAVE> are used only for
their side effects.  C<PRE> and C<POST> must return boolean values that are
evaluated according to the usual Design by Contract (DBC) rules.  (Plus,
if you use C<ENTER>/C<LEAVE> in a class block, they only execute when the
class block is executed, but C<PRE>/C<POST> in a class block are evaluated
around every method in the class.)  C<KEEP> and C<UNDO> are just variants
of C<LEAVE>, and for execution order are treated as part of the queue of
C<LEAVE> blocks.

C<FIRST>, C<NEXT>, and C<LAST> are meaningful only within the
lexical scope of a loop, and may occur only at the top level of such
a loop block.  A C<NEXT> executes only if the end of the loop block is
reached normally, or an explicit C<next> is executed.  In distinction
to C<LEAVE> blocks, a C<NEXT> block is not executed if the loop block
is exited via any exception other than the control exception thrown
by C<next>.  In particular, a C<last> bypasses evaluation of C<NEXT>
blocks.

[Note: the name C<FIRST> used to be associated with C<state>
declarations.  Now it is associated only with loops.  See the C<START>
above for C<state> semantics.]

C<LEAVE> blocks are evaluated after C<CATCH> and C<CONTROL> blocks, including
the C<LEAVE> variants, C<KEEP> and C<UNDO>.  C<POST> blocks are evaluated after
everything else, to guarantee that even C<LEAVE> blocks can't violate DBC.
Likewise C<PRE> blocks fire off before any C<ENTER> or C<FIRST> (though not
before C<BEGIN>, C<CHECK>, or C<INIT>, since those are done at compile or
process initialization time).

For blocks such as C<KEEP> and C<POST> that are run when exiting a
scope normally, the return value (if any) from that scope is available
as the current topic.  (It is presented as a C<Capture> object.)
The topic of the outer block is still available as C<< OUTER::<$_> >>.
Whether the return value is modifiable may be a policy of the block
in question.  In particular, the return value should not be modified
within a C<POST> block, but a C<LEAVE> block could be more liberal.

=head1 Statement parsing

In this statement:

    given EXPR {
        when EXPR { ... }
        when EXPR { ... }
        ...
    }

parentheses aren't necessary around C<EXPR> because the whitespace
between C<EXPR> and the block forces the block to be considered a block
rather than a subscript, provided the block occurs where an infix
operator would be expected.  This works for all control structures,
not just the new ones in Perl 6.  A top-level bare block is always
considered a statement block if there's a term and a space before it:

    if $foo { ... }
    elsif $bar { ... }
    else { ... }
    while $more { ... }
    for 1..10 { ... }

You can still parenthesize the expression argument for old times'
sake, as long as there's a space between the closing paren and the
opening brace.  (Otherwise it will be parsed as a hash subscript.)

Note that the parser cannot intuit how many arguments a list operator
is taking, so if you mean 0 arguments, you must parenthesize the
argument list to force the block to appear after a term:

    if caller {...}    # WRONG, parsed as caller({...})
    if caller() {...}  # okay
    if (caller) {...}  # okay

Note that common idioms work as expected though:

    for map { $^a + 1 }, @list { .say }

Unless you are parsing a statement that expects a block argument,
it is illegal to use a bare closure where an operator is expected
because it will be considered to be two terms in row.
(Remove the whitespace if you wish it to be a postcircumfix.)

Anywhere a term is expected, a block is taken to be a closure definition
(an anonymous subroutine).  If the closure is empty, or appears to contain
nothing but a comma-separated list starting with a pair or a hash (counting
a single pair or hash as a list of one element), the closure will be
immediately executed as a hash composer.

    $hash = { };
    $hash = { %stuff };
    $hash = { "a" => 1 };
    $hash = { "a" => 1, $b, $c, %stuff, @nonsense };

    $code = { ; };
    $code = { @stuff };
    $code = { "a", 1 };
    $code = { "a" => 1, $b, $c ==> print };

If you wish to be less ambiguous, the C<hash> list operator will
explicitly evaluate a list and compose a hash of the returned value,
while C<sub> introduces an anonymous subroutine:

    $code = sub { "a" => 1 };
    $hash = hash("a" => 1);
    $hash = hash("a", 1);

If a closure is the right argument of the dot operator, the closure
is interpreted as a hash subscript.

    $code = {$x};       # closure because term expected
    if $term{$x}        # subscript because postfix expected
    if $term {$x}       # expression followed by statement block
    if $term.{$x}       # valid subscript with dot
    if $term\  {$x}     # valid subscript with "unspace"

Similar rules apply to array subscripts:

    $array = [$x];      # array composer because term expected
    if $term[$x]        # subscript because postfix expected
    if $term [$x]       # syntax error (two terms in a row)
    if $term.[$x]       # valid subscript with dot
    if $term\  [$x]     # valid subscript with "unspace"

And to the parentheses delimiting function arguments:

    $scalar = ($x);     # grouping parens because term expected
    if $term($x)        # function call because operator expected
    if $term ($x)       # syntax error (two terms in a row)
    if $term.($x)       # valid function call with explicit dot deref
    if $term\  .($x)    # valid function call with "unspace" and dot

Outside of any kind of expression brackets, a final closing curly
on a line (not counting whitespace or comments) always reverts
to the precedence of semicolon whether or not you put a semicolon
after it.  (In the absence of an explicit semicolon, the current
statement may continue on a subsequent line, but only with valid
statement continuators such as C<else> that cannot be confused with
the beginning of a new statement.  Anything else, such as a statement
modifier (on, say, a C<loop> statement) must continue on the same line,
unless the newline be escaped using the "unspace" construct--see S02.)

Final blocks on statement-level constructs always imply semicolon
precedence afterwards regardless of the position of the closing curly.
Statement-level constructs are distinguished in the grammar by being
declared in the C<statement_control> category:

    macro statement_control:<if> ($expr, &ifblock) {...}
    macro statement_control:<while> ($expr, &whileblock) {...}
    macro statement_control:<BEGIN> (&beginblock) {...}

Statement-level constructs may start only where the parser is expecting
the start of a statement.  To embed a statement in an expression you
must use something like C<do {...}> or C<try {...}>.

    $x =  do { given $foo { when 1 {2} when 3 {4} } } + $bar;
    $x = try { given $foo { when 1 {2} when 3 {4} } } + $bar;

The existence of a C<< statement_control:<BEGIN> >> does not preclude us from
also defining a C<< prefix:<BEGIN> >> that I<can> be used within an expression:

    macro prefix:<BEGIN> (&beginblock) { beginblock().repr }

Then you can say things like:

    $recompile_by = BEGIN { time } + $expiration_time;

But C<< statement_control:<BEGIN> >> hides C<< prefix:<BEGIN> >> at the start of a statement.
You could also conceivably define a C<< prefix:<if> >>, but then you may not
get what you want when you say:

    die if $foo;

since C<< prefix:<if> >> would hide C<< statement_modifier:<if> >>.

Built-in statement-level keywords require whitespace between the
keyword and the first argument, as well as before any terminating loop.
In particular, a syntax error will be reported for C-isms such as these:

    if(...) {...}
    while(...) {...}
    for(...) {...}

=head1 Definition of Success

Hypothetical variables are somewhat transactional--they keep their
new values only on successful exit of the current block, and otherwise
are rolled back to their original values.

It is, of course, a failure to leave the block by propagating an error
exception, though returning a defined value after catching an exception
is okay.

In the absence of error exception propagation, a successful exit is one that
returns a defined value in item context, or any number of values
in list context as long as the length is defined.  (A length of +Inf
is considered a defined length.  A length of 0 is also a defined length,
which means it's a "successful" return even though the list would evaluate
to false in a boolean context.)  A list can have a defined length
even if it contains undefined scalar values.  A list is of undefined
length only if it contains an undefined generator, which, happily, is
what is returned by the C<fail> function when used in list context.
So any Perl 6 function can say

    fail "message";

and not care about whether the function is being called in item or list
context.  To return an explicit scalar undef, you can always say

    return undef;

Then in list context, you're returning a list of length 1, which is
defined (much like in Perl 5).  But generally you should be using
C<fail> in such a case to return an exception object.
In any case, returning an unthrown exception is considered failure
from the standpoint of C<let>.  Backtracking over a closure in a regex
is also considered failure of the closure, which is how hypothetical
variables are managed by regexes.  (And on the flip side, use of C<fail>
within a regex closure initiates backtracking of the regex.)

=head1 When is a closure not a closure

Everything is conceptually a closure in Perl 6, but the optimizer
is free to turn unreferenced closures into mere blocks of code.
It is also free to turn referenced closures into mere anonymous
subroutines if the block does not refer to any external lexicals that
should themselves be cloned.  (When we say "clone", we mean the way
the system takes a snapshot of the routine's lexical scope and binds
it to the current instance of the routine so that if you ever use
the current reference to the routine, it gets the current snapshot
of its world in terms of the lexical symbols that are visible to it.)

All remaining blocks are conceptually cloned into closures as soon
as the lexical scope containing them is entered.  (This may be done
lazily as long as consistent semantics are preserved, so a block
that is never executed and never has a reference taken can avoid
cloning altogether.  Execution or reference taking forces cloning
in this case--references are not allowed to be lazily cloned, since
no guarantee can be made that the scope needed for cloning will
remain in existence over the life of the reference.)

In particular, named subroutines are a special problem when embedded in
a changing lexical scope (when they make reference to it).  The binding
of such a definition to a name within a symbol table counts as taking
a reference, so at compile time there is an initial C<::=> binding
to the symbol table entry in question.  For "global" bindings to
symbol tables visible at compile time, this binds to the compile-time
view of the lexical scopes.  (At run-time, the initial run-time view
of these scopes is copied from the compiler's view of them, so that
initializations carry over, for instance.)  At run time, when such
a subroutine is cloned, an additional C<:=> binding is done
at clone time to the same symbol table entry that the original C<::=>
was bound to.  (The binding is not restored on exit from the current
lexical scope; this C<:=> binding records the I<last> cloning, not
the currently in-use cloning, so any use of the global reference must
take into consideration that it is functioning only as a cache of the
most recent cloning, not as a surrogate for the current lexical scope.)

Lexical names do not share this problem, since the symbol goes out
of scope synchronously with its usage.  Unlike global subs, they
do not need a compile-time C<::=> binding, but like global subs,
they perform a C<:=> binding to the lexical symbol at clone time
(again, conceptually at the entry to the outer lexical scope, but
possibly deferred.)

    sub foo {
        # conceptual cloning happens to both blocks below
        my $x = 1;
        my sub bar { print $x }         # already conceptualy cloned, but can be lazily deferred
        my &baz := { bar(); print $x }; # block is cloned immediately, forcing cloning of bar
        my $code = &bar;                # this would also force bar to be cloned
        return &baz;
    }

In particular, blocks of inline control flow need not be cloned until
called.  [Note: this is currently a potential problem for user-defined
constructs, since you have to take references to blocks to pass them
to whatever is managing the control flow.  Perhaps the laziness can
be deferred through C<Capture>s to binding time, so a slurpy of block
refs doesn't clone them all prematurely.  On the other hand, this
either means the C<Capture> must be smart enough to keep track of the
lexical scope it came from so that it can pass the info to the cloner,
or it means that we need some special fat not-cloned-yet references
that can carry the info lazily.  Neither approach is pretty.]

Some closures produce C<Block> objects at compile time that cannot be
cloned, because they're not attached to any runtime code that can
actually clone them.  C<BEGIN>, C<CHECK>, C<INIT>, and C<END> blocks
fall into this category.  Therefore you can't reliably refer to
run-time variables from these closures even if they appear to be in the
scope.  (The compile-time closure may, in fact, see some kind of permanent
copy of the variable for some storage classes, but the variable is
likely to be undefined when the closure is run in any case.)  It's
only safe to refer to package variables and file-scoped lexicals from
such a routine.

On the other hand, it is required that C<CATCH> and C<LEAVE> blocks be able
to see transient variables in their current lexical scope, so their
cloning status depends at least on the cloning status of the block
they're in.

=for vim:set expandtab sw=4: