In simple cases there is NO performance gain in using your function or even XS-based first() of List::Util :)
grep in scalar context is much faster :)

UPD: Tanktalus found a bug in my benchmark, so i corrected it :) The first function from List::Util beats the grep-based solution if the "good" element appears in the first middle of the array.

Have a look at the benchmark: 

#!/usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;
use List::Util 'first';
use Benchmark qw(:hireswallclock cmpthese);

sub grap (&@) {

    my ($sub,@list) = @_;

    foreach (@list) {
        return 1 if ($sub->($_));
    }
    return;
}

my $count = 10000;
our ($start, $end, $middle);
$_ = [(0) x $count] foreach ($start, $end, $middle);

$start->[0] = 1;
$middle->[($count/2) -1] = 1;
$end->[$count-1] = 1;

foreach my $name (qw/start middle end/) {
    print uc "\n$name:\n";
    cmpthese ( -1,{
        'grap' => 'my $result = grap { $_ } @$'.$name,
        'grep' => 'my $result = grep { $_ } @$'.$name,
        'first'=> 'my $result = first { $_ } @$'.$name,
    })
}

[download]
And at its result (the uppercase words denote the position of the searched element in the array): 
START:
         Rate  grap  grep first
grap    638/s    --  -14%  -99%
grep    746/s   17%    --  -99%
first 57971/s 8983% 7672%    --

MIDDLE:
       Rate  grap first  grep
grap  175/s    --  -76%  -77%
first 735/s  319%    --   -3%
grep  758/s  332%    3%    --

END:
       Rate  grap first  grep
grap  102/s    --  -73%  -86%
first 377/s  269%    --  -50%
grep  751/s  635%   99%    --

[download]

In reply to Re: RFC: Text::Grap by Ieronim
in thread RFC: Text::Grap by kwaping

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