while doesn't do any binding except when calling readline or glob (either by name or by using the <...> syntax):

while (<STDIN>) { ... }
while (readline(STDIN)) { ...}

are equivalent to: while (1) { last unless defined($_ = <STDIN>); ... 
+}

while (glob("*.c")) { ... }
while (<*.c>) { ... }

are equivalent to: my @list = glob("*.c"); for (@list) { ... };
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Yeah, though it would be nice if perldoc -f word worked for any perl keyword.

Good Day,
    Dean

perlbug still works, as does supplying patches to p5p.

---

My criteria for good software:

1. Does it work?
2. Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?

I don't understand your question. while and foreach are documented in perlsyn as they are statement modifiers.

Update: I of course meant compound statements

As i understand it, you're asking for perldoc -k while

Oddly enough, searching at perl.org in index-functions does not turn up documentation for while, nor for foreach. The other Perl iterative constructs, grep and map are there, though.

I personally believe it's not odd at all: it is to be expected, since map and grep are not simply "iterative constructs" but actual functions, whereas while and for are flow control statements or statement modifiers. I believe that in Perl 6 they will become (more akin to) real functions, but that's not the case as of now.

I believe that in Perl 6 they will become (more akin to) real functions, but that's not the case as of now.

They will never be quite like ordinary functions, because they violate the "no two terms in a row":

# while:
while $cond { $statements }
# ordinary funtion:
my_while $cond, { $statements };

# allowed in ordinary functions:
my_while $cond, █
# not allowed in builtin while:
while $cond █
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while is parsed like this in STD.pm:

rule statement_control:while {\
    <sym>
    [ <?before '(' [[my]? '$'\w+ '=']? '<' '$'?\w+ '>' ')'>   #'
        <.panic: "This appears to be Perl 5 code"> ]?
    <EXPR>                             {*}                      #= exp
+r
    <pblock>                           {*}                      #= blo
+ck
    {*}
}
[download]

So it's still special-cased. (It would be even without the check for Perl 5 constructs)