README

NAME
    perl5i - Fix as much of Perl 5 as possible in one pragma

SYNOPSIS
      use perl5i::2;

      or

      $ perl5i your_script.pl

DESCRIPTION
    Perl 5 has a lot of warts. There's a lot of individual modules and
    techniques out there to fix those warts. perl5i aims to pull the best of
    them together into one module so you can turn them on all at once.

    This includes adding features, changing existing core functions and
    changing defaults. It will likely not be 100% backwards compatible with
    Perl 5, though it will be 99%, perl5i will try to have a lexical effect.

    Please add to this imaginary world and help make it real, either by
    telling me what Perl looks like in your imagination
    (http://github.com/schwern/perl5i/issues) or make a fork (forking on
    github is like a branch you control) and implement it yourself.

Using perl5i
    Because perl5i *plans* to be incompatible in the future, you do not
    simply `use perl5i'. You must declare which major version of perl5i you
    are using. You do this like so:

        # Use perl5i major version 1
        use perl5i::2;

    Thus the code you write with, for example, `perl5i::2' will always
    remain compatible even as perl5i moves on.

    If you want to be daring, you can `use perl5i::latest' to get the latest
    version.

    If you want your module to depend on perl5i, you should depend on the
    versioned class. For example, depend on `perl5i::2' and not `perl5i'.

    See VERSIONING for more information about perl5i's versioning scheme.

What it does
    perl5i enables each of these modules and adds/changes these functions.
    We'll provide a brief description here, but you should look at each of
    their documentation for full details.

  The Meta Object
    Every object (and everything is an object) now has a meta object
    associated with it. Using the meta object you can ask things about the
    object which were previously over complicated. For example...

        # the object's class
        my $class = $obj->mo->class;

        # its parent classes
        my @isa = $obj->mo->isa;

        # the complete inheritance hierarchy
        my @complete_isa = $obj->mo->linear_isa;

        # the reference type of the object
        my $reftype = $obj->mo->reftype;

    A meta object is used to avoid polluting the global method space. `mo'
    was chosen to avoid clashing with Moose's meta object.

    See perl5i::Meta for complete details.

  Subroutine and Method Signatures
    perl5i makes it easier to declare what parameters a subroutine takes.

        func hello($place) {
            say "Hello, $place!\n";
        }

        method get($key) {
            return $self->{$key};
        }

        method new($class: %args) {
            return bless \%args, $class;
        }

    `func' and `method' define subroutines as `sub' does, with some extra
    conveniences.

    The signature syntax is currently very simple. The content will be
    assigned from @_. This:

        func add($this, $that) {
            return $this + $that;
        }

    is equivalent to:

        sub add {
            my($this, $that) = @_;
            return $this + $that;
        }

    `method' defines a method. This is the same as a subroutine, but the
    first argument, the *invocant*, will be removed and made into `$self'.

        method get($key) {
            return $self->{$key};
        }

        sub get {
            my $self = shift;
            my($key) = @_;
            return $self->{$key};
        }

    Methods have a special bit of syntax. If the first item in the siganture
    is `$var:' it will change the variable used to store the invocant.

        method new($class: %args) {
            return bless $class, \%args;
        }

    is equivalent to:

        sub new {
            my $class = shift;
            my %args = @_;
            return bless $class, \%args;
        }

    Anonymous functions and methods work, too.

        my $code = func($message) { say $message };

    Guarantees include:

      @_ will not be modified except by removing the invocant

    Future versions of perl5i will add to the signature syntax and
    capabilities. Planned expansions include:

      Signature validation
      Signature documentation
      Named parameters
      Required parameters
      Read only parameters
      Aliased parameters
      Anonymous method and function declaration
      Variable method and function names
      Parameter traits
      Traditional prototypes

    See http://github.com/schwern/perl5i/issues/labels/syntax#issue/19 for
    more details about future expansions.

    The equivalencies above should only be taken for illustrative purposes,
    they are not guaranteed to be literally equivalent.

    Note that while all parameters are optional by default, the number of
    parameters will eventually be enforced. For example, right now this will
    work:

        func add($this, $that) { return $this + $that }

        say add(1,2,3);  # says 3

    The extra argument is ignored. In future versions of perl5i this will be
    a runtime error.

    Signature Introspection
    The signature of a subroutine defined with `func' or `method' can be
    queried by calling the `signature' method on the code reference.

        func hello($greeting, $place) { say "$greeting, $place" }

        my $code = \&hello;
        say $code->signature->num_positional_params;  # prints 2

    Functions defined with `sub' will not have a signature.

    See perl5i::Signature for more details.

  Autoboxing
    autobox allows methods to be defined for and called on most unblessed
    variables. This means you can call methods on ordinary strings, lists
    and hashes! It also means perl5i can add a lot of functionality without
    polluting the global namespace.

    autobox::Core wraps a lot of Perl's built in functions so they can be
    called as methods on unblessed variables. `@a->pop' for example.

    alias()
        $scalar_reference->alias( @identifiers );
        @alias->alias( @identifiers );
        %hash->alias( @identifiers );
        (\&code)->alias( @identifiers );

    Aliases a variable to a new global name.

        my $code = sub { 42 };
        $code->alias( "foo" );
        say foo();        # prints 42

    It will work on everything except scalar references.

        our %stuff;
        %other_hash->alias( "stuff" );  # %stuff now aliased to %other_hash

    It is not a copy, changes to one will change the other.

        my %things = (foo => 23);
        our %stuff;
        %things->alias( "stuff" );  # alias %things to %stuff
        $stuff{foo} = 42;           # change %stuff
        say $things{foo};           # and it will show up in %things

    Multiple @identifiers will be joined with '::' and used as the fully
    qualified name for the alias.

        my $class = "Some::Class";
        my $name  = "foo";
        sub { 99 }->alias( $class, $name );
        say Some::Class->foo;  # prints 99

    If there is just one @identifier and it has no "::" in it, the current
    caller will be prepended. `$thing->alias("name")' is shorthand for
    `$thing->alias(CLASS, "name")'

    Due to limitations in autobox, non-reference scalars cannot be aliased.
    Alias a scalar ref instead.

        my $thing = 23;
        $thing->alias("foo");  # error

        my $thing = \23;
        $thing->alias("foo");  # $foo is now aliased to $thing

    This is basically a nicer way to say:

        no strict 'refs';
        *{$package . '::'. $name} = $reference;

  Scalar Autoboxing
    perl5i adds some methods to scalars of its own.

    center()
        my $centered_string = $string->center($length);
        my $centered_string = $string->center($length, $character);

    Centers $string between $character. $centered_string will be of length
    $length.

    `$character' defaults to " ".

        say "Hello"->center(10);        # "   Hello  ";
        say "Hello"->center(10, '-');   # "---Hello--";

    `center()' will never truncate `$string'. If $length is less than
    `$string->length' it will just return `$string'.

        say "Hello"->center(4);        # "Hello";

    round
        my $rounded_number = $number->round;

    Round to the nearest integer.

    round_up
    ceil
        my $new_number = $number->round_up;

    Rounds the $number towards infinity.

        2.45->round_up;   # 3
      (-2.45)->round_up;  # -2

    ceil() is a synonym for round_up().

    round_down
    floor
        my $new_number = $number->round_down;

    Rounds the $number towards negative infinity.

        2.45->round_down;  # 2
      (-2.45)->round_down; # -3

    floor() is a synonyn for round_down().

    is_number
        $is_a_number = $thing->is_number;

    Returns true if $thing is a number understood by Perl.

        12.34->is_number;           # true
        "12.34"->is_number;         # also true
        "eleven"->is_number;        # false

    is_positive
        $is_positive = $thing->is_positive;

    Returns true if $thing is a positive number.

    0 is not positive.

    is_negative
        $is_negative = $thing->is_negative;

    Returns true if $thing is a negative number.

    0 is not negative.

    is_even
        $is_even = $thing->is_even;

    Returns true if $thing is an even integer.

    is_odd
        $is_odd = $thing->is_odd;

    Returns true if $thing is an odd integer.

    is_integer
        $is_an_integer = $thing->is_integer;

    Returns true if $thing is an integer.

        12->is_integer;             # true
        12.34->is_integer;          # false
        "eleven"->is_integer;       # false

    is_int
    A synonym for is_integer

    is_decimal
        $is_a_decimal_number = $thing->is_decimal;

    Returns true if $thing is a decimal number.

        12->is_decimal;             # false
        12.34->is_decimal;          # true
        ".34"->is_decimal;          # true
        "point five"->is_decimal;   # false

    require
        my $module = $module->require;

    Will `require' the given $module. This avoids funny things like `eval
    qq[require $module] or die $@'. It accepts only module names.

    On failure it will throw an exception, just like `require'. On a success
    it returns the $module. This is mostly useful so that you can
    immediately call $module's `import' method to emulate a `use'.

        # like "use $module qw(foo bar);" if that worked
        $module->require->import(qw(foo bar));

        # like "use $module;" if that worked
        $module->require->import;

    wrap()
        my $wrapped = $string->wrap( width => $cols, separator => $sep );

    Wraps $string to width $cols, breaking lines at word boundries using
    separator $sep.

    If no width is given, $cols defaults to 76. Default line separator is
    the newline character "\n".

    See Text::Wrap for details.

    ltrim()
    rtrim()
    trim()
        my $trimmed = $string->trim;
        my $trimmed = $string->trim($character_set);

    Trim whitespace. ltrim() trims off the start of the string (left),
    rtrim() off the end (right) and trim() off both the start and end.

        my $string = '    testme'->ltrim;        # 'testme'
        my $string = 'testme    '->rtrim;        # 'testme'
        my $string = '    testme    '->trim;     # 'testme'

    They all take an optional $character_set which will determine what
    characters should be trimmed. It follows regex character set syntax so
    `A-Z' will trim everything from A to Z. Defaults to `\s', whitespace.

        my $string = '-> test <-'->trim('-><');  # ' test '   

    title_case()
        my $name = 'joe smith'->title_case;   # Joe Smith

    Will uppercase every word character that follows a wordbreak character.

    path2module()
        my $module = $path->path2module;

    Given a relative $path it will return the Perl module this represents.
    For example,

        "Foo/Bar.pm"->path2module;  # "Foo::Bar"

    It will throw an exception if given something which could not be a path
    to a Perl module.

    module2path()
        my $path = $module->module2path;

    Will return the relative $path in which the Perl $module can be found.
    For example,

        "Foo::Bar"->module2path;  # "Foo/Bar.pm"

    group_digits
        my $number_grouped     = $number->group_digits;
        my $number_grouped     = $number->group_digits(\%options);

    Turns a number like 1234567 into a string like 1,234,567 known as "digit
    grouping".

    It honors your current locale to determine the separator and grouping.
    This can be overriden using `%options'.

    NOTE: many systems do not have their numeric locales set properly

    separator
        The character used to separate groups. Defaults to "thousands_sep"
        in your locale or "," if your locale doesn't specify.

    decimal_point
        The decimal point character. Defaults to "decimal_point" in your
        locale or "." if your locale does not specify.

    grouping
        How many numbers in a group? Defaults to "grouping" in your locale
        or 3 if your locale doesn't specify.

        Note: we don't honor the full grouping locale, its a wee bit too
        complicated.

    currency
        If true, it will treat the number as currency and use the monetary
        locale settings. "mon_thousands_sep" instead of "thousands_sep" and
        "mon_grouping" instead of "grouping".

        1234->group_digits;                      # 1,234 (assuming US locale)
        1234->group_digits( separator => "." );  # 1.234

    commify
        my $number_grouped = $number->commify;
        my $number_grouped = $number->commify(\%options);

    commify() is just like group_digits() but it is not locale aware. It is
    useful when you want a predictable result regardless of the user's
    locale settings.

    `%options' defaults to `( separator => ",", grouping => 3, decimal_point
    => "." )'. Each key will be overriden individually.

        1234->commify;                      # 1,234
        1234->commify({ separator => "." });  # 1.234

  List Autoboxing
    All the functions from List::Util and select ones from List::MoreUtils
    are all available as methods on unblessed arrays and array refs.

    first, max, maxstr, min, minstr, minmax, shuffle, reduce, sum, any, all,
    none, true, false, uniq and mesh.

    The have all been altered to return array refs where applicable in order
    to allow chaining.

        @array->grep(sub{ $_->is_number })->sum->say;

    foreach()
        @array->foreach( func($item) { ... } );

    Works like the built in `foreach', calls the code block for each element
    of @array passing it into the block.

        @array->foreach( func($item) { say $item } );  # print each item

    It will pass in as many elements as the code block accepts. This allows
    you to iterate through an array 2 at a time, or 3 or 4 or whatever.

        my @names = ("Joe", "Smith", "Jim", "Dandy", "Jane", "Lane");
        @names->foreach( func($fname, $lname) {
            say "Person: $fname $lname";
        });

    A normal subroutine with no signature will get one at a time.

    If @array is not a multiple of the iteration (for example, @array has 5
    elements and you ask 2 at a time) the behavior is currently undefined.

    diff()
    Calculate the difference between two (or more) arrays:

        my @a = ( 1, 2, 3 );
        my @b = ( 3, 4, 5 );

        my @diff_a = @a->diff(\@b) # [ 1, 2 ]
        my @diff_b = @b->diff(\@a) # [ 4, 5 ]

    Diff returns all elements in array `@a' that are not present in array
    `@b'. Item order is not considered: two identical elements in both
    arrays will be recognized as such disregarding their index.

        [ qw( foo bar ) ]->diff( [ qw( bar foo ) ] ) # empty, they are equal

    For comparing more than two arrays:

        @a->diff(\@b, \@c, ... )

    All comparisons are against the base array (`@a' in this example). The
    result will be composed of all those elements that were present in `@a'
    and in none other.

    It also works with nested data structures; it will traverse them
    depth-first to assess whether they are identical or not. For instance:

        [ [ 'foo ' ], { bar => 1 } ]->diff([ 'foo' ]) # [ { bar => 1 } ]

    In the case of overloaded objects (i.e., DateTime, URI, Path::Class,
    etc.), it tries its best to treat them as strings or numbers.

        my $uri  = URI->new("http://www.perl.com");
        my $uri2 = URI->new("http://www.perl.com");

        [ $uri ]->diff( [ "http://www.perl.com" ] ); # empty, they are equal
        [ $uri ]->diff( [ $uri2 ] );                 # empty, they are equal

    intersect()
        my @a = (1 .. 10);
        my @b = (5 .. 15);

        my @intersection = @a->intersect(\@b) # [ 5 .. 10 ];

    Performs intersection between arrays, returning those elements that are
    present in all of the argument arrays simultaneously.

    As with `diff()', it works with any number of arrays, nested data
    structures of arbitrary depth, and handles overloaded objects
    graciously.

    ltrim()
    rtrim()
    trim()
        my @trimmed = @list->trim;
        my @trimmed = @list->trim($character_set);

    Trim whitespace from each element of an array. Each works just like
    their scalar counterpart.

        my @trimmed = [ '   foo', 'bar   ' ]->ltrim;  # [ 'foo', 'bar   ' ]
        my @trimmed = [ '   foo', 'bar   ' ]->rtrim;  # [ '   foo', 'bar' ]
        my @trimmed = [ '   foo', 'bar   ' ]->trim;   # [ 'foo', 'bar'    ]

    As with the scalar trim() methods, they all take an optional
    $character_set which will determine what characters should be trimmed.

        my @trimmed = ['-> foo <-', '-> bar <-']->trim('-><'); # [' foo ', ' bar ']

  Hash Autoboxing
    flip()
    Exchanges values for keys in a hash.

        my %things = ( foo => 1, bar => 2, baz => 5 );
        my %flipped = %things->flip; # { 1 => foo, 2 => bar, 5 => baz }

    If there is more than one occurence of a certain value, any one of the
    keys may end up as the value. This is because of the random ordering of
    hash keys.

        # Could be { 1 => foo }, { 1 => bar }, or { 1 => baz }
        { foo => 1, bar => 1, baz => 1 }->flip;

    Because hash references cannot usefully be keys, it will not work on
    nested hashes.

        { foo => [ 'bar', 'baz' ] }->flip; # dies

    merge()
    Recursively merge two or more hashes together using Hash::Merge::Simple.

        my $a = { a => 1 };
        my $b = { b => 2, c => 3 };

        $a->merge($b); # { a => 1, b => 2, c => 3 }

    For conflicting keys, rightmost precedence is used:

        my $a = { a => 1 };
        my $b = { a => 100, b => 2};

        $a->merge($b); # { a => 100, b => 2 }
        $b->merge($a); # { a => 1,   b => 2 }

    It also works with nested hashes, although it won't attempt to merge
    array references or objects. For more information, look at the
    Hash::Merge::Simple docs.

    diff()
        my %staff    = ( bob => 42, martha => 35, timmy => 23 );
        my %promoted = ( timmy => 23 );

        %staff->diff(\%promoted); # { bob => 42, martha => 35 }

    Returns the key/value pairs present in the first hash that are not
    present in the subsequent hash arguments. Otherwise works as
    `@array->diff'.

    intersect()
        %staff->intersect(\%promoted); # { timmy => 23 }

    Returns the key/value pairs that are present simultaneously in all the
    hash arguments. Otherwise works as `@array->intersect'.

  Code autoboxing
    signature
        my $sig = $code->signature;

    You can query the signature of any code reference defined with `func' or
    `method'. See Signature Introspection for details.

    If `$code' has a signature, returns an object representing `$code''s
    signature. See perl5i::Signature for details. Otherwise it returns
    nothing.

  caller()
    Perl6::Caller causes `caller' to return an object in scalar context.

  die()
    `die' now always returns an exit code of 255 instead of trying to use
    `$!' or `$?' which makes the exit code unpredictable. If you want to
    exit with a message and a special exit code, use `warn' then `exit'.

  utf8
    utf8 lets you put UTF8 encoded strings into your source code. This means
    UTF8 variable and method names, strings and regexes.

    It means strings will be treated as a set of characters rather than a
    set of bytes. For example, `length' will return the number of
    characters, not the number of bytes.

        length("perl5i is MËTÁŁ");  # 15, not 18

    `@ARGV' will be read as UTF8.

    STDOUT, STDIN, STDERR and all newly opened filehandles will have UTF8
    encoding turned on. Consequently, if you want to output raw bytes to a
    file, such as outputting an image, you must set `binmode $fh'.

  Carp
    `croak' and `carp' from Carp are always available.

  Child
    Child provides the `child' function which is a better way to do forking.

    `child' creates and starts a child process, and returns an
    Child::Link::Proc object which is a better interface for managing the
    child process. The only required argument is a codeblock, which is
    called in the new process. exit() is automatically called for you after
    the codeblock returns.

        my $proc = child {
            my $parent = shift;
            ...
        };

    You can also request a pipe for IPC:

        my $proc = child {
            my $parent = shift;

            $parent->say("Message");
            my $reply = $parent->read();

            ...
        } pipe => 1;

        my $message = $proc->read();
        $proc->say("reply");

    API Overview: (See Child for more information)

    $proc->is_complete()
    $proc->wait()
    $proc->kill($SIG)
    $proc->pid()
    $proc->exit_status()
    $parent->pid()
    $parent->detach()
    $proc_or_parent->read()
    $proc_or_parent->write( @MESSAGES )
    $proc_or_parent->say( @MESSAGES )

  English
    English gives English names to the punctuation variables; for instance,
    `<$@'> is also `<$EVAL_ERROR'>. See perlvar for details.

    It does not load the regex variables which affect performance.
    `$PREMATCH', `$MATCH', and `$POSTMATCH' will not exist. See the `p'
    modifier in perlre for a better alternative.

  Modern::Perl
    Modern::Perl turns on strict and warnings, enables all the 5.10 features
    like `given/when', `say' and `state', and enables C3 method resolution
    order.

  CLASS
    Provides `CLASS' and `$CLASS' alternatives to `__PACKAGE__'.

  File::chdir
    File::chdir gives you `$CWD' representing the current working directory
    and it's assignable to `chdir'. You can also localize it to safely chdir
    inside a scope.

  File::stat
    File::stat causes `stat' to return an object in scalar context.

  DateTime
    `time', `localtime', and `gmtime' are replaced with DateTime objects.
    They will all act like the core functions.

        # Sat Jan 10 13:37:04 2004
        say scalar gmtime(2**30);

        # 2004
        say gmtime(2**30)->year;

        # 2009 (when this was written)
        say time->year;

  Time::y2038
    `gmtime()' and `localtime()' will now safely work with dates beyond the
    year 2038 and before 1901. The exact range is not defined, but we
    guarantee at least up to 2**47 and back to year 1.

  IO::Handle
    Turns filehandles into objects so you can call methods on them. The
    biggest one is `autoflush' rather than mucking around with `$|' and
    `select'.

        $fh->autoflush(1);

  autodie
    autodie causes system and file calls which can fail (`open', `system',
    and `chdir', for example) to die when they fail. This means you don't
    have to put `or die' at the end of every system call, but you do have to
    wrap it in an `eval' block if you want to trap the failure.

    autodie's default error messages are pretty smart.

    All of autodie will be turned on.

  autovivification
    autovivification fixes the bug/feature where this:

        $hash = {};
        $hash->{key1}{key2};

    Results in `$hash->{key1}' coming into existence. That will no longer
    happen.

  No indirect object syntax
    perl5i turns indirect object syntax, ie. `new $obj', into a compile time
    error. Indirect object syntax is largely unnecessary and removing it
    avoids a number of ambiguous cases where Perl will mistakenly try to
    turn a function call into an indirect method call.

    See indirect for details.

  want()
    `want()' generalizes the mechanism of the wantarray function, allowing a
    function to determine the context it's being called in. Want
    distinguishes not just scalar v. array context, but void, lvalue,
    rvalue, boolean, reference context, and more. See perldoc Want for full
    details.

  Try::Tiny
    Try::Tiny gives support for try/catch blocks as an alternative to `eval
    BLOCK'. This allows correct error handling with proper localization of
    $@ and a nice syntax layer:

            # handle errors with a catch handler
            try {
                    die "foo";
            } catch {
                    warn "caught error: $_";
            };

            # just silence errors
            try {
                    die "foo";
            };

    See perldoc Try::Tiny for details.

  Better load errors
    Most of us have learned the meaning of the dreaded "Can't locate Foo.pm
    in @INC". Admittedly though, it's not the most helpful of the error
    messages. In perl5i we provide a much friendlier error message.

    Example:

        Can't locate My/Module.pm in your Perl library.  You may need to install it
        from CPAN or another repository.  Your library paths are:
            Indented list of paths, 1 per line...

Command line program
    There is a perl5i command line program installed with perl5i (Windows
    users get perl5i.bat). This is handy for writing one liners.

        perl5i -e 'gmtime->year->say'

    And you can use it on the `#!' line.

        #!/usr/bin/perl5i

        gmtime->year->say;

BUGS
    Some parts are not lexical. Some parts are package scoped.

    If you're going to use two versions of perl5i together, we do not
    currently recommend having them in the same package.

    See http://github.com/schwern/perl5i/issues/labels/bug for a complete
    list.

    Please report bugs at http://github.com/schwern/perl5i/issues/ or email
    mailto:perl5i@googlegroups.com.

VERSIONING
    perl5i follows the Semantic Versioning policy, http://semver.org. In
    short...

    Versions will be of the form X.Y.Z.

    0.Y.Z may change anything at any time.

    Incrementing X (ie. 1.2.3 -> 2.0.0) indicates a backwards incompatible
    change.

    Incrementing Y (ie. 1.2.3 -> 1.3.0) indicates a new feature.

    Incrementing Z (ie. 1.2.3 -> 1.2.4) indicates a bug fix or other
    internal change.

NOTES
    Inspired by chromatic's Modern::Perl and in particular
    http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2009/04/ugly-perl-a-lesson-in-the-impo
    rtance-of-language-design.html.

    I totally didn't come up with the "Perl 5 + i" joke. I think it was
    Damian Conway.

THANKS
    Thanks to our contributors: Chas Owens, Darian Patrick, rjbs, chromatic,
    Ben Hengst, Bruno Vecchi and anyone else I've forgotten.

    Thanks to Flavian and Matt Trout for their signature and Devel::Declare
    work.

    Thanks to all the CPAN authors upon whom this builds.

LICENSE
    Copyright 2009-2010, Michael G Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>

    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

SEE ALSO
    Repository: http://github.com/schwern/perl5i/tree/master Issues/Bugs:
    http://github.com/schwern/perl5i/issues IRC: irc.perl.org on the #perl5i
    channel Mailing List: http://groups.google.com/group/perl5i/

    Frequently Asked Questions about perl5i: perl5ifaq

    Some modules with similar purposes include: Modern::Perl, Common::Sense

    For a complete object declaration system, see Moose and MooseX::Declare.