RFC 329 (v1) C<use syntax>

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  http://dev.perl.org/rfc/

=head1 TITLE

C<use syntax>

=head1 VERSION

  Maintainer: Simon Cozens <[email protected]>
  Date: 28 Sep 2000
  Mailing List: [email protected]
  Number: 329
  Version: 1
  Status: Developing

=head1 ABSTRACT

A pragma to modify the syntax of Perl 6 at run time. Oh yes.

=head1 DESCRIPTION

So, maybe the Perl 6 crack pipe finally got around to me, but it
seems to me that if we've got a parser that we can modify and add hooks
to in Perl space (see RFC 314) then we can alter Perl's syntax using
pragmata.

Combining this with source filters means that we can arrange for the
line
    
    use syntax "perl5";

to enable legacy Perl programs to run under Perl 6.

I briefly considered

    {
        use syntax "python";
    }

and nearly lost my lunch.

Seriously, though, I think if we have a flexible parser that we can
modify in Perl space, interpreting legacy versions of Perl or inferior
languages could quite definitely become possible.

=head1 IMPLEMENTATION

First, implement 314. Then construct grammars for what we want to parse,
and ensure that the parser is flexible enough to allow them as alternate
grammars.

=head1 REFERENCES

RFC 314