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kobaken
kobaken

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Released Sub::Meta that handles function meta information in Perl 5

Sub::Meta - handle subroutine meta information - metacpan.org

Sub::Meta is a module to handle meta information such as subroutine names and subroutine input/output.
There are similar modules such as Sub::Identify,Sub::Util and Sub::Info, but writeSub::Meta because it can not handle the meta information of the input/output of the subroutine.

The basic usage is as follows.
You can get meta information based on the code reference:

use Sub::Meta;

sub hello($) :mehtod { }
my $meta = Sub::Meta->new(sub => \&hello);
$meta->subname;     # hello
$meta->sub;         # \&hello
$meta->subname;     # hello
$meta->fullname;    # main::hello
$meta->stashname;   # main
$meta->file;        # path/to/file.pl
$meta->line;        # 5
$meta->is_constant; # !!0
$meta->prototype;   # $
$meta->attribute;   # ['method']
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You can also handle meta information without passing a code reference:

my $meta = Sub::Meta->new(subname => 'foo');
$meta->subname; # foo
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Function input/output meta information can be added:

# INPUT
my $parameters = Sub::Meta::Parameters->new(
  args => [
    { name => '$a', type => 'Int' },
    { name => '$b', type => 'Int'},
  ],
  nshift => 1,
);

$meta->set_parameters($paramters);
$meta->parameters->args;
# [
# Sub::Meta::Param->new({ name => '$a', type => 'Int' }),
# Sub::Meta::Param->new({ name => '$b', type => 'Int' })
# ]

# OUTPUT
my $returns = Sub::Meta::Returns->new(
  scalar => 'Int',
  list   => 'Int',
);
$meta->set_returns($returns);
$meta->returns->scalar; # 'Int'

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Let's dig into the motivations for working with function input and output meta information.

Perl5 has many modules that validate function input, such as Params::Validate,Data::Validator, Smart::Args,Function::Parameters, Type::Params, etc.

Each module has different usability, I thought it was somewhat stressful.
Also, I wanted to do Static analysis because I was annotating the types.

Therefore, I thought that if there is an object that handles meta information of the input of the function, it will be easier to handle in a unified I/F.

The same is true for function output.

Also, when trying to express a Java-like Interface in Perl5 such as Function::Interface, it is useful if the input/output of functions is easy to handle.

The current F::I is sticky in the Function::Parameters and Function::Return implementations, and I thought that it could not handle many applications and lacked flexibility.

That's why I created Sub::Meta that can handle meta information including function input and output. I'm glad to try it if it is good! That's all!

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