for my $name (@colors) { no strict 'refs'; # allow symbol table manipulation *$name = sub { "@_" }; } ##

##

use strict;
use warnings;

# declaration of $name
# pick one and comment out the other
my $name;
#our $name;

# why is red printing out red rather than violet since
# $name is always changing? Shouldn't it be picking up the
# most recent value of $name, i.e. 'violet'?

my @colors = qw(red blue green yellow orange purple violet);
for $name (@colors) {
  no strict 'refs';	# allow symbol table manipulation
  *$name = sub { "@_" };
}

# And another oddity: when we declare our $name *both*
# red and violet complain about uniinitialized values even
# though we have clearly set $name inside the for loop.
# No such problems when we declare $name using my.

print "----- \$name is constant inside sub ------\n";
print "red:    ${\(red())}\n";
print "violet: ${\(violet())}\n";


# is it because our lack of use of $name within the generated
# sub caused it to be compiled as a constant?
# no: here we use $name, but it *still* prints out the value
# at sub definition time, rather than the current value.

for $name (@colors) {
  no strict 'refs';	   # allow symbol table manipulation
  no warnings 'redefine';  #ignore noise about redefinitions
  *$name = sub {
    my $sOutput = "@_";
    $name = 'something wacky and wonderful'; #change the value
    return $sOutput;
  };
}

# when we declare our $name red, but not violet
# complains about uninitialized values.  There are no
# complains when we declare my $name. Hmmm...

print "----- \$name given new value inside sub ------\n";
print "red:    ${\(red())}\n";
print "violet: ${\(violet())}\n";


# so maybe the closure picks up the value at the time of
# definition and always uses that as the initial value even
# if the value changes after subdefinition?
#
# but if so, why do red and violet use their own last value
# setting of the value of name? Didn't we just redefine the
# subroutines? shouldn't they be using the value at the time
# of definition?

print "----- sub used inside loop that defined it ------\n";
for $name (@colors) {
  no strict 'refs';	   # allow symbol table manipulation
  no warnings 'redefine';  #ignore noise about redefinitions

  # why isn't $name getting set to the array eleemnt value
  # when the array element is red or violet?
  # Note: it gets set properly when we declare
  # our $name but not when we declare my $name

  print "trying out $name: ";
  *$name = sub {
    my $sOutput = "@_";
    $name = 'something wacky and wonderful'; #change the value
    return $sOutput;
  };
  print $name->() . "\n";
}

print "----- sub used outside of loop that assigned it ------\n";
print "red:    ${\(red())}\n";
print "green:  ${\(green())}\n";
print "violet: ${\(violet())}\n";


##

##

----- $name is constant inside sub ------
red:    
violet: 
----- $name given new value inside sub ------
red:    
violet: 
----- sub used inside loop that defined it ------
trying out something wacky and wonderful: 
trying out blue: 
trying out green: 
trying out yellow: 
trying out orange: 
trying out purple: 
trying out something wacky and wonderful: 
----- sub used outside of loop that assigned it ------
red:    
green:  
violet: 

##

##

----- $name is constant inside sub ------
Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at ...
red:    
Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at ...
violet: 
----- $name given new value inside sub ------
Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at ...
red:    
violet: 
----- sub used inside loop that defined it ------
trying out red: 
trying out blue: 
trying out green: 
trying out yellow: 
trying out orange: 
trying out purple: 
trying out violet: 
----- sub used outside of loop that assigned it ------
red:    
green:  
violet: