TITLE

Elements of @_ should be read-only by default

VERSION

  Maintainer: John Tobey <jtobey@john-edwin-tobey.org>
  Date: 28 Sep 2000
  Last Modified: 1 Oct 2000
  Mailing List: perl6-language@perl.org
  Number: 344
  Version: 2
  Status: Frozen

ABSTRACT

Unprototyped subs should not be allowed to modify their callers' data simply by assigning to elements of the arg array.

COMMENTS ON FREEZE

This RFC generated no discussion in 3 days.

DESCRIPTION

In Perl 5, you can modify a caller's value by assigning directly to elements of @_, like this:

    sub perp {
        $_[0] = 'ha!';
    }

    sub victim {
        my $num = 42;
        perp($num);
        print $num;    # prints ha!
    }

This form of passing arguments by reference is obsolete now that Perl has hard references and \$ in prototypes.

The feature is surprising. At least, I was surprised when I first learned you could modify a caller's value by assigning to $_[0].

The feature is confusing, since it means that the recommended convention for naming parameters (by assigning @_ to a my list) alters semantics. For example, the following subs do not have the same effect as above:

    sub perp1 {
        my $arg = shift;
        $arg = 'ha!';
    }

    sub perp2 {
        my ($arg) = @_;
        $arg = 'ha!';
    }

The Perl 5 (and older) behavior may preclude optimizations in compiled code. If a compiler knows that arguments are passed by value, it may generate code that places the value directly in a register or on the stack. With the Perl 5 semantics, it would normally have to pass a pointer to each scalar and dereference the pointer to obtain the argument's value.

I think this change should not affect subs with a prototype, so the examples in "Prototypes" in perlsub would still work. People who bother to use prototypes and sub attributes should know what they are getting into. The prototype and attribute system will, I think, give plenty of opportunities to specify compiler optimizations. Just the default case should be changed.

IMPLEMENTATION

A fascist implementation would emit a compile-time error any time @_ or one of its elements were assigned to, taken a refernce to, etc. A friendlier version would automatically copy the arg value to a new temporary.

This change would mean a moderate Perl 5 compatibility breakage. The Perl-5-to-Perl-6 converter could insert whatever trick is used to obtain the Perl 5 behavior (perhaps a (@) prototype) when it detects (or suspects) argument modification.

REFERENCES

RFC 154: Simple assignment lvalue subs should be on by default

perlsub

The C-- homepage - www.cminusminus.org