Re: inlned DEBUG constant versus $DEBUG

[dragonchild]

C's method is to use preprocessing, which I've heard is coming out (in some form) in Perl6. Thus, if DEBUG is set to 0, the compiler would just skip over that code and not even compile it to optimize it away.

As a note, just do

use constant DEBUG => (1);

if you're in 5.6.0 or higher. (It may be available earlier, but I'm not sure.)

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[grinder]

If you are wondering whether use constant is available in versions prior to 5.6.0, it was introduced in 5.004. In fact if you were using the late 5.003 versions (circa 5.003_90+) it was there in betas leading up to 5.004.

Nevertheless, it's been there for a long time, at least as far as scalars go. Constant hashes and arrays didn't work correctly until around 5.005_03.

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g r i n d e r

[perrin]

You can use a pre-processor with Perl too. See Filter::cpp.