Thanks for the puzzle. Has the following code any shortcomings? 
use strict;
use warnings;

sub first_last_map(&&&@)
{
    my $code  = shift;
    my $first_code = shift;
    my $last_code  = shift;

    ($first_code->($_[0]),
     (map { $code->($_) } @_[ 1 .. $#_ - 1]),
     $last_code->($_[-1])
     )
}

print for first_last_map(
    sub { "<li>$_[0]</li>\n" },
    sub { "<li class=\"first\">$_[0]</li>\n" },
    sub { "<li class=\"last\">$_[0]</li>\n" },
    qw( alpha beta gamma delta ));

[download]
I am not really happy with the sub { ... } arguments. I would like to be able to give multiple blocks instead: 
print for first_last_map(
    { "<li>$_[0]</li>\n" },
    { "<li class=\"first\">$_[0]</li>\n" },
    { "<li class=\"last\">$_[0]</li>\n" },
    qw( alpha beta gamma delta ));

[download]
But written as above they are parsed as hash constructors :-(. Is there a coercion I could use instead?

In reply to Re: Variant of map for special-casing the last item by hexcoder
in thread Variant of map for special-casing the last item by jdporter

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.