NAME

Slang::Nogil - allow sigilless scalar variables

SYNOPSIS

use Slang::Nogil;

my a = 42;
say a;  # 42

DESCRIPTION

Slang::Nogil modifies the Raku grammar to make it possible to use scalar variables without needing a $ sigil.

You are strongly recommended to keep using the @, % and & sigils where appropriate. If those are absent from your code, guess one is writing "baby Raku" and losing some awesome compiler optimizations.

Why are sigils useful anyway ?

Doubtless this is somewhat interesting to someone somewhere,
but we'll restrain ourselves from talking about them somehow
(TimToady)

In brief: sigils can be seen as a type declaration. They permit compiler optimization and avoid user error at compile time.

Note that this module only aliases the scalar sigil.

The following is transcribed from a StackOverflow answer by Jonathan Worthington.

Syntactic disambiguation

You can call a variable whatever you want, even if there happens to be a keyword with that name

Readability

The data in the program stands out thanks to the sigil.

Defining assignment semantics

In Raku assignment means "copy in to", thus my @a = @b means iterate @b and put each thing in it into @a, thus any future assignments to @b will not affect @a.

Restricting what can be bound there

Only Positional things to @, only Associative things to %, only Callable things to &.

In the case of the $, controlling what will be considered a single item.

Interpolation in double quoted strings

Without a sigil, interpolation can no distinguish between a variable and a word.

PREREQUISITES

This module requires the 2023.10 release of the Rakudo compiler.

INSPIRATION

Inspired by the now obsolete Slang::Nogil distribution by Martin Tourneboeuf.

AUTHOR

Elizabeth Mattijsen liz@raku.rocks

Source can be located at: https://github.com/lizmat/Slang-Nogil . Comments and Pull Requests are welcome.

If you like this module, or what I’m doing more generally, committing to a small sponsorship would mean a great deal to me!

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the Artistic License 2.0.