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Tie::Static

by tilly (Archbishop)
on Jul 15, 2001 at 09:30 UTC ( [id://96832]=sourcecode: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??
Category: Miscellaneous
Author/Contact Info
Description: This provides a way to produce static lexical variables in Perl without relying on the bug mentioned at Unusual Closure Behaviour. Ever since I pointed out this bug, I have not quite known what to do about people who think that it is a feature. Well I think it a good use of this, my 2000'th post, to provide an alternate solution for people who want static lexicals.

For an explanation of why the misfeature really is a bug, see my $foo if 0; is a bug.

To understand how to use this module, read the documentation.

package Tie::Static;
$VERSION = 0.01;

foreach my $type (qw(Hash Array Scalar)) {
  my $meth = uc($type);
  eval qq(
    package Tie::Static::$type;
    require Tie::$type;
    \@ISA = 'Tie::Std$type';
    
    sub TIE$meth {
      my \$class = shift;
      my \$id = join "|", caller(), \@_;
      return \$preserved{\$id}
        ||= \$class->SUPER::TIE$meth();
    }
    
    sub Tie::Static::TIE$meth {
      shift;
      unshift \@_, 'Tie::Static::$type';
      goto &Tie::Static::$type\::TIE$meth;
    }
    
  ) or die $@;
}

1;

__END__

=head1 NAME

Tie::Static - create static lexicals

=head1 SYNOPSIS

  use Tie::Static;
  
  sub foo {
    tie (my $static_scalar, 'Tie::Static');
    tie (my @static_array, 'Tie::Static');
    tie (my %static_hash, 'Tie::Static');
    # do whatever you want
  }

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This module makes it easy to produce static variables.

A static variable is a variable whose value will remain
constant from invocation to invocation.  The usual way
to produce this is to create an enclosing scope which
contains a lexically scoped variable.  For instance the
example above could be written as:

  {
    my $static_scalar;
    my @static_array;
    my %static_hash;
    
    sub foo {
      # Do whatever you want
    }
  }

But while this works, many people find it cumbersome
to have to produce new scopes manually just to get a
static variables.  This module provides an alternate
solution by providing a way to tie lexical variables
back to the same value each time.

As an additional feature, this module supports "modal
statics".  If you pass additional arguments into the
tie, those arguments will be factored into the
decision of what static you get.

=head1 BUGS

This module uses the feedback from I<caller> to decide
what static to give you back.  While this is good
enough for most possible uses of statics, it is not
always right.  Aside from the possibility of someone
deliberately confusing I<caller>, closures will not,
in general, be distinguished from each other since
two instances will have the same package, filename,
and line number.  You might argue that it is easy
enough to solve that by passing in a unique lexically
scoped variable as a mode.  And it is.  But in that
case the lexical that is your mode is already a static
and it would usually make more sense to create more
lexicals in that scope.

This only allows static scalars, arrays, and hashes.

If you want to overload the implementation of a static,
please note that scalars, arrays, and hashes are not
tied to the package Tie::Static.  Instead they are tied
to the private packages Tie::Static::Scalar,
Tie::Static::Array, and Tie::Static::Hash.

=head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT

Ben Tilly (ben_tilly@operamail.com)

Copyright 2001.  This may be modified and distributed
on the same terms as Perl.
Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Tie::Static
by MeowChow (Vicar) on Jul 15, 2001 at 11:41 UTC
    Any reason not to simplify this by losing the extra layer of indirection?
    package Tie::Static; $VERSION = 0.01; foreach my $type (qw(Hash Array Scalar)) { my $meth = uc($type); eval qq( package Tie::Static::$type; require Tie::$type; \@ISA = 'Tie::Std$type'; sub Tie::Static::TIE$meth { my \$id = join "|", caller(), \@_; return \$preserved{\$id} ||= Tie::Static::$type->TIE$meth; } ) or die $@; } 1;
    You should also mention in the POD that it's not a good idea to do this:
    tie (my $foo, 'Tie::Static'); tie (my $bar, 'Tie::Static'); # or this map { tie $_, 'Tie::Static' } my ($foo, $bar, $baz, ...);
       MeowChow                                   
                   s aamecha.s a..a\u$&owag.print
      The reason for the extra layer of indirection is that when I wrote it I was thinking that you would tie to the type of the variable. So you would tie to Tie::Static::Hash, etc. In fact I am still unsure whether it is better to always tie to Tie::Static, or to tie to the actual package that you are blessed into. There is something to be said for a consistent interface. There is also something to be said for not violating expectations about what tied is.

      As for the examples you offer of broken ties, read the first paragraph of "bugs". While it does not offer your examples, it is clear about the fact that the heuristic uses package, filename, and line number. Do you think it is clear enough to warn people away from that map trick?

      Personally I am inclined to believe that someone who wants many tied variables will generally just tie a hash. Do you think that is wrong? Would it make sense to offer a function that takes a list of variables and ties them? Something like this?

      sub static { my $called = join ":", caller(); tie ($_[$_], 'Tie::Static', $called, $_) for 0..$#_; }
      Then people can just call:
      static my ($foo, $bar, $baz);
      Yes? No? Maybe?
        In fact I am still unsure whether it is better to always tie to Tie::Static, or to tie to the actual package that you are blessed into. There is something to be said for a consistent interface. There is also something to be said for not violating expectations about what tied is.

        Well, it's not uncommon to see constructors bless their objects into other classes, so I don't think it's fair for a user to expect that tied return a reference blessed into the original class. Of course, we've seen a few people confused by the former, so it's safe to assume that some people will be confused by the latter.

        Do you think it is clear enough to warn people away from that map trick?

        I don't think so; it's a subtle bug that's easy for us to spot since we're familiar with the implementation, but for a casual user of the module, it wouldn't be obvious, even after reading through the bugs section. In general, I think one should enumerate the failure modes of a module as much as reasonably possible. I usually find that such documentation helps improve my understanding of a module's internals.

        Then people can just call: static my ($foo, $bar, $baz); Yes? No? Maybe?

        I really like this, though I'm a confessed syntactic sugar addict. It's much less verbose than the original interface, and nicely abstracts away the whole tied issue from view. The cost is another layer of indirection, though if you're using this module, performance is probably not high on your list of priorities. I also think that static should apply to lists and hashes:

        sub static { my $called = join ":", caller(); my $uniq; for (@_) { if (!ref) { tie $_, 'Tie::Static', $called, $uniq++ + } elsif (ref eq 'SCALAR') { tie $$_, 'Tie::Static', $called, $uniq++ + } elsif (ref eq 'ARRAY') { tie @$_, 'Tie::Static', $called, $uniq++ + } elsif (ref eq 'HASH') { tie %$_, 'Tie::Static', $called, $uniq++ + } } } # usage static my $foo; static \ my ($foo, @bar, %baz);
        It has also occured to me that there should be a way to properly initialize a static variable. Although one could write:
        static my $foo; $foo = 'blah' unless defined $foo;
        The second line could re-initialize $foo after it has been intentionally undef'd. I have some ideas about how to do this, but none of them are very pretty. Any thoughts?
           MeowChow                                   
                       s aamecha.s a..a\u$&owag.print
Tie::Static take 2
by tilly (Archbishop) on Jul 16, 2001 at 07:51 UTC
    Here is another shot at Tie::Static that takes into account considerable conversation with MeowChow, japhy and others. If nobody notices anything glaring wrong with it, it will go in my home directory as version 0.02.
    package Tie::Static; use Exporter; @EXPORT_OK = 'static'; @ISA = 'Exporter'; $VERSION = 0.02; use strict; use vars qw(%call_count); use Carp; sub static { my $call = join "|", caller(); if ($call_count{$call}) { tie_all($call, @_); } else { my @init = map { (ref($_) eq "SCALAR" or ref($_) eq "REF") ? $$_ : (ref($_) eq "ARRAY") ? [@$_] : (ref($_) eq "HASH") ? { %$_ } : bad_ref($_); } @_; tie_all($call, @_); foreach my $to_replace(@_) { my $saved = shift @init; if (ref($to_replace) eq "SCALAR" or ref($to_replace) eq "REF") { $$to_replace = $saved; } elsif (ref($to_replace) eq "ARRAY") { @$to_replace = @$saved; } elsif (ref($to_replace) eq "HASH") { %$to_replace = %$saved; } else { $Carp::Verbose = 1; bad_ref($to_replace); } } } return $call_count{$call}++; } # The first argument is the value of $called to use, the # rest are references to the variables to tie. It ties # the variables to the appropriate static. sub tie_all { my $call = shift; my $uniq = 0; for (@_) { if (ref($_) eq "SCALAR" or ref($_) eq "REF") { tie ($$_, 'Tie::Static::Scalar', $call, $uniq++); } elsif (ref($_) eq "ARRAY") { tie (@$_, 'Tie::Static::Array', $call, $uniq++); } elsif (ref($_) eq "HASH") { tie (%$_, 'Tie::Static::Hash', $call, $uniq++); } else { bad_ref($_); } } } # Message for a bad reference in the argument. sub bad_ref { my $thing = shift; if (my $ref = ref($thing)) { croak("Cannot create static of unknown type $ref"); } else { croak("Arguments to static must be references!"); } } # Implement the ties foreach my $type (qw(Hash Array Scalar)) { my $meth = uc($type); my $pack = "Tie::Static::$type"; eval qq( package $pack; require Tie::$type; \@$pack\::ISA = 'Tie::Std$type'; sub TIE$meth { my \$class = shift; my \$call = join "|", \@_ ? \@_ : caller(); return \$$pack\::preserved{\$call} ||= \$class->SUPER::TIE$meth(); } sub Tie::Static::TIE$meth { shift; unshift \@_, 'Tie::Static::$type'; goto &$pack\::TIE$meth; } ) or die $@; } 1; __END__ =head1 NAME Tie::Static - create static lexicals =head1 SYNOPSIS # The tie-based approach use Tie::Static; sub foo { tie (my $static_scalar, 'Tie::Static'); tie (my @static_array, 'Tie::Static'); tie (my %static_hash, 'Tie::Static'); # do whatever you want } # The function call approach use Tie::Static qw(static); sub bar { static \ my ($scalar, @array, %hash); # etc } =head1 DESCRIPTION This module makes it easy to produce static variables. A static variable is a variable whose value will remain constant from invocation to invocation. The usual way to produce this is to create an enclosing scope which contains a lexically scoped variable. For instance the first example could be written as: { my $static_scalar; my @static_array; my %static_hash; sub foo { # Do whatever you want } } But while this works, many people find it cumbersome to have to produce new scopes manually just to get a static variables. This module provides an alternate solution by providing a way to make lexical variables be what they used to be. There are two interfaces. The low-level interface is to I<tie> your variable directly. But most of the time you will want to use the exportable I<static> function. If you I<tie> and do not pass any arguments, it will use the feedback from caller() to decide whether to tie you to a fresh variable, or whether to hand you back an old one. If you pass the I<tie> arguments, it will join them with "|" and use that key to decide what object to hand you back. This allows you to create static variables which are shared between functions in any way you want. What I<static> does is take a list of references to variables, tie them, and then report how many times they were previously tied. If the variables had not been tied before, I<static> will initialize the tied variables to the values they had before being tied. Therefore if you want to have default values for your static variables you can either initialize them before calling I<static>, or do the initialization if I<static> returns a false value. Here are examples: # Pre-initializing a static. my @array = 1..10; my %hash = (Hello => "World", Greetings => "Earthlings"); static \(@array, %hash); # Testing the return of static my $handle; unless (static(\$handle)) { $handle = complex_initialization(); } # Initializing while calling, only works with scalars static \(my $foo = "Hello", my $bar = "World"); =head1 LIMITATIONS AND NOTES This module relies on the output of [caller] to decide which value to give back. Specifically, it makes its decisions based on Perl's idea of the current package, filename, and line-number. Normally this is correct. But sometimes it is wrong. And occasionally it is very wrong. It is correct if there is only one call on any given line, and you want that call to always give you back the same values. It is wrong if you put 2 separate calls to I<static> or try to I<tie> the same data-type twice on one line. It is very wrong if you want to play with closures. It has no way to distinguish them. This only allows static scalars, arrays, and hashes. If you want to overload the implementation of a static, please note that scalars, arrays, and hashes are not tied to the package Tie::Static. Instead they are tied to the private packages Tie::Static::Scalar, Tie::Static::Array, and Tie::Static::Hash. =head1 CREDITS Thanks go to several people at http://www.perlmonks.org for discussions on how to implement this and what the API should look like. In particular "MeowChow" for analyzing the gotchas that people need to be aware of. Jeff "japhy" Pinyan (japhy@pobox.com) for discussion on implementations and the idea of I<static>. And "HyperZonk" and Charles "Wog" Reiss for general discussion. The idea of initializing scalars as you call I<static> is Wog's. And a particular note should be made of all of the people on p5p, PerlMonks, and elsewhere who saw the behaviour of my $foo if 0; as a feature rather than a bug. Without you I would not have been inspired to write an (intentional) implementation of statics for Perl. =head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT Ben Tilly (ben_tilly@operamail.com) Copyright 2001. This may be modified and distributed on the same terms as Perl.
      why can't
      (static my $x) = 'yz';
      work. You have to get the parens right. But at least it's useful.
      update Nevermind. you'd have to back into the unless defined $x bag all over again. (static my $x ) ||=  ?

        p

        Actually I had simpler reasons for avoiding that.

        The first is that I didn't want to depend on experimental 5.6 features without good reason.

        The second, and more important, is that I tried to figure out what it would look like to declare and initialize a list of things that included arrays and hashes. It did not look pretty.

        Anyways I think that the API that I came up with is both simple to explain and pretty flexible. Plus it works on 5.005. :-)

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