Possible to get coderef of CORE::print to alias it?

[Yary]

I have a function that I might want to just be an alias to "print", or I might want it to be something else. This is what I tried:

my $pick_real_print = 1;
use vars qw(&printish);
*printish = $pick_real_print ? *CORE::print :
  sub { print "I'm not really print!\n" };

CORE::print "Here is the real deal\n";
printish "printing\n";

which prints:

Here is the real deal
Undefined subroutine &CORE::print called at - line 7.

I know print is a very special function... is it possible to alias to it?

ps. I already have the workaround sub { print } in place. I was hoping to benchmark the difference between that and aliasing via code reference, since this will be in a tight loop, and I'm curious.

[LanX]

> is it possible to alias to it?

Nope!

  DB<128>   $CORE::{substr}
 => *CORE::substr

  DB<129>   $CORE::{print}
 => undef

It's not really as a "function" in CORE namespace, to rule out overriding.

prototype FUNCTION
               Returns the prototype of a function as a string (or "un
+def" if
               the function has no prototype).  FUNCTION is a referenc
+e to, or
               the name of, the function whose prototype you want to r
+etrieve.

               If FUNCTION is a string starting with "CORE::", the res
+t is
               taken as a name for Perl builtin.  If the builtin is no
+t
               overridable (such as "qw//") or if its arguments cannot
+ be
               adequately expressed by a prototype (such as "system"),
               prototype() returns "undef", because the builtin does n
+ot
               really behave like a Perl function.  Otherwise, the str
+ing
               describing the equivalent prototype is returned.

  DB<131> prototype 'CORE::print'
 => undef

  DB<132> prototype 'CORE::substr'
 => "\$\$;\$\$"

Nevertheless can it be called.

  DB<133> CORE::print("bla")
bla

> I know print is a very special function...

Thats the point, print is magic about indirect object syntax:

eg print STDERR "Fatal!"

This behavior can't be mimiced with normal prototypes, so no STASH entry.

[Yary]

Thanks, knew I'd seen that somewhere, forgot about "prototype".