PerlOnTheWay has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Quoted from perlinterp:

for efficiency reasons, perl in fact just sets a flag, using CATCH_SET(TRUE) . The pp_require , pp_entereval and pp_entertry ops check this flag, and if true, they call docatch , which does a JMPENV_PUSH and starts a new runops level to execute the code, rather than doing it on the current loop.

So by using CATCH_SET it just moves the JMPENV_PUSH to a new runops, rather than doing it on the current loop.

But IMO the same amount of stuff has to be done in both cases, how does this make efficiency better?

  • Comment on How does CATCH_SET optimize efficiency?

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Re: How does CATCH_SET optimize efficiency?
by Anonymous Monk on Dec 16, 2012 at 10:33 UTC

    But IMO the same amount of stuff has to be done in both cases, how does this make efficiency better?

    Being fairly ignorant, the way I understand it ( after consulting these * * * * * * * * )

    it avoids doing the same amount of stuff if some cases ... like avoid re-entering runops and setting up some stacks a second time

    but given the date of some of that code, I wouldn't be surprised if this commentary doesn't match the facts

[reply]
      For example in the following: 
      sub FETCH {
    for (1..3) {
        eval { $x }
    }
}

sub TIEARRAY { bless [] }

my @a;
tie @a, 'main';
$y = $a[0];

      [download]
      When the tie FETCH method is called, je_mustcatch is set to true, so the first time pp_entertry is called, it pushes a new jump level and enters a new runops loop. The second and third time pp_entertry is called, je_mustcatch is false, so the try block is executed within the current (inner) runops loop.

      Dave.

[reply]
[d/l]

        Dave, thanks for your reply. But I've still got several questions:

        1. when is je_mustcatch set back to false?

        2. so the way it optimizes performance is by reusing the same jump level for multiple times?

[reply]

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