Re^2: when $$s =~ m/\G.../gc is too verbose (for)

[stefp]

This is the trick used by Calc.yp in the Parse::Yapp distribution. It indeed creates an alias but conveys the wrong message because the the block is not really used as a loop.

[bart]

That's why I wished Perl allowed another keyword as yet another synonym for for/foreach — I'd propose "with", for example:

with($$s) {
    ...
}

But in the meantime, I've trained myself to actually read/see

for(SCALAR) { ... }

as

with(SCALAR) { ... }

Chalk it up as another Perl idiom.

[TimToady]

It's called "given" in Perl 6 (or in Perl6::Switch, if you want to play with 6ish topicalizers in Perl 5).

Perl 6 also has syntactic relief for the m/\G.../gc monstrosity as well. That turns into m:p/.../, where the :p tells it to start matching at the current position. (But generally you don't even need that since subrules in a grammar always anchor to the current position anyway.)

[tye]

Much like in English, you can use Perl's for() for iterating over a list, iterating via initialization + check + step, or associating a single topic with a block of syntax. So I, without apology, use for() for topicalizing. For you, I won't stop doing this. (: Excuse me for not demonstrating the use of English "for" analogous to init + check + step.