in reply to Re^2: Slow constants
in thread Slow constants

Doesn't the absence of an empty prototype in the assignment *$AUTOLOAD = sub { $val } mean that these are just normal (non-constant) subs, and will therefore never be inlined, and therefore, called everytime they are used? 

## From Socket.pm (Fnctl.pm contains an nearly identical sub)
sub AUTOLOAD {
    my($constname);
    ($constname = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*:://;
    croak "&Socket::constant not defined" if $constname eq 'constant';
    my ($error, $val) = constant($constname);
    if ($error) {
    croak $error;
    }
    *$AUTOLOAD = sub { $val };
    goto &$AUTOLOAD;
}

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Re^4: Slow constants
by Perl Mouse (Chaplain) on Nov 02, 2005 at 17:22 UTC
    Doesn't the absence of an empty prototype in the assignment *$AUTOLOAD = sub { $val } mean that these are just normal (non-constant) subs, and will therefore never be inlined, and therefore, called everytime they are used?
    Eh, yes. And no. They will indeed by called everytime they are used - just as I said: The second time, the sub is there and the sub is called. (But a subsequent call to the same constant will not invoke AUTOLOAD again). However, it does not matter whether there's a prototype present or not - the calling code is already compiled, so it's too late for inlining. Although it might matter if there's future code to be string-evalled that uses a previous called constant.
    Perl --((8:>*
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