optree hacking in the YAPC::Asia hackthon

In the YAPC::Asia Hackthon, done a really awesome hacks on PerlX::Range module with flora -- We re-implement it with XS approach so it works more robust.

The current (version 0.04) implementation is to use B::OPCheck to replace the statements like:

1..100

To something like

1 + PerlX::Range->new(last => 100)

This can be easily broken in many ways (inappropriate precendence, random syntax errors, etc).

The new approach is to do it in XS with B::Hooks::OP::Check to replace the flipflop range OP with a manually built entersub OP. Effectivly, truning:

1..100

into

PerlX::Range::xrange(1, 100)

which returns a PerlX::Range object.

The current XS base implementation is in the xs branch on github, take a look if you're interested.

Here are some brief examples to try:

# build into blib/ first
perl Makefile.PL; make;

# => PerlX::Range
perl -Mblib -MPerlX::Range -E 'say ref(1..10000)'

# => 10000;
perl -Mblib -MPerlX::Range -E '$r = 1..10000; print $r->items'

# => 10000;
perl -Mblib -MPerlX::Range -MData::Dumper -E '$r = 'a'..'z'; say Dumper($r)'