Actually this means nothing. (Sorry ;-) The issue is still open...

D:\Development> perl -MO=Deparse,-x3 -e "for ($i = 0; $i < 10; ++$i) {
+print $i;}"
$i = 0;
while ($i < 10) {
    print $i;
}
continue {
    ++$i
}
-e syntax OK
[download]

From B::Deparses documentation <super>_{(Emphasis by me)}</super>:

-xLEVEL

Expand conventional syntax constructions into equivalent ones that expose their internal operation. LEVEL should be a digit, with higher values meaning more expansion. As with -q, this actually involves turning off special cases in B::Deparse's normal operations. If LEVEL is at least 3, for loops will be translated into equivalent while loops with continue blocks; for instance

    for ($i = 0; $i < 10; ++$i) {
        print $i;
    }
[download]

turns into

    $i = 0;
    while ($i < 10) {
        print $i;
    } continue {
        ++$i
    }
[download]

Note that in a few cases this translation can't be perfectly carried back into the source code -- if the loop's initializer declares a my variable, for instance, it won't have the correct scope outside of the loop.

In fact if anything I would say that Deparse suggests that in fact for(;;) is converted into while{}continue{} not the other way around. Although the trailing paragraph that I quoted suggests that its not quite so straightforward as perhaps we might like...

:-)

Yves / DeMerphq
---
Writing a good benchmark isnt as easy as it might look.