Actually, it reacts to commands that start with - or '-. The reason I use -- is because I normally use it with SQL Server to generate scripts. The reason for the '- is because I also use VB (yes, boo hiss =/). I work in a Microsoft-only shop and I find that the languages I need to use benefit greatly from code generation.

The reason for B::Deparse is so the script can get the source for the anonymous subs that have been generated. If you wish to see the entire subroutine that is generated for a macro, use the fullcodefor macro. codefor reconstructs the macro as you gave it, although it does a bit of cleaning up which I like.

As for another example, here's a simple note/recall pair of macros.

-- def_macro note
my $file = shift or die "Please indicate the note you wish to create/a
+ppend to";
mkdir 'notes' unless -e 'notes';
open my $fh, ">>", "notes/$file" or die "Couldn't open note for write:
+ $!";
local $/;
print $fh $_ while <>;
close $fh or die "Trouble closing file: $!";
print "Successfully appended to note $file";
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-- def_macro recall
my $file = shift or die "Please indicate the note you wish to open";
die "Note $file does not exist" unless -f "notes/$file";
open my $fh, "<", "notes/$file" or die "Couldn't open note for read: $
+!";
local ($/,$\);
print <$fh>;
close $fh or die "Couldn't close file: $!";
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To use:

-- note example
This should be the first line
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-- note example
This should be the second line
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-- recall example
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Produces:

This should be the first line
This should be the second line

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