TITLE

Inline::Perl5

SYNOPSIS

    use Inline::Perl5;
    use DBI:from<Perl5>;

    my $dbh = DBI.connect('dbi:Pg:database=test');
    my $products = $dbh.selectall_arrayref(
    	'select * from products', {Slice => {}}
    );

DESCRIPTION

Module for executing Perl 5 code and accessing Perl 5 modules from Perl 6.

Supports Perl 5 modules including XS modules. Allows passing integers, strings, arrays, hashes and objectsbetween Perl 5 and Perl 6. Also supports calling methods on Perl 5 objects from Perl 6 and calling methods on Perl 6 objects from Perl 5.

HOW DO I?

Load a Perl 5 module

Perl 6' use statement allows you load modules from other languages as well. Inline::Perl5 registers as a handler for the Perl5 language:

    use Inline::Perl5;
    use Test::More:from<Perl5>;

Inline::Perl5's use() method maps to Perl 5's use statement:

    use Inline::Perl5;
    my $p5 = Inline::Perl5.new;
    $p5.use('Test::More');

Call a Perl 5 function

Inline::Perl5's call($name, *@args) method allows calling arbitrary Perl 5 functions. Use a fully qualified name (like "Test::More::ok") if the function is not in the "main" namespace.

    use Inline::Perl5;
    my $p5 = Inline::Perl5.new;
    $p5.call('print', 'Hello World');
    $p5.use('Test::More');
    $p5.call('Test::More::plan', 1);

Create a Perl 5 object

Creating Perl 5 objects works just the same as in Perl 5: invoke their constructor (usually called "new").

    use Inline::Perl5;
    use Data::Dumper:from<Perl5>;
    my $dumper = Data::Dumper.new();

Or using the low level methods:

    use Inline::Perl5;
    my $p5 = Inline::Perl5.new;
    $p5.use('Data::Dumper');
    my $dumper = $p5.invoke('Data::Dumper', 'new');

Invoke a method on a Perl 5 object

Once you have a Perl 5 object in a variable it will behave just like a Perl 6 object. You can call methods on it like on any other object.

    use Inline::Perl5;
    use IO::Compress::Bzip2:from<Perl5>;
    my $bzip2 = IO::Compress::Bzip2.new('/tmp/foo.bz2');
    $bzip2.print($data);
    $bzip2.close;

Invoke a method on a Perl 6 object from Perl 5

Perl 6 objects passed to Perl 5 functions will behave just like any other objects in Perl 5, so you can invoke methods using the -> operator.

    use Inline::Perl5;
    my $p5 = Inline::Perl5.new;

    $p5.run(q'
        sub test {
            my ($perl6) = @_;
            $perl6->hello;
        }
    ');

    class Foo {
        method hello {
            say "Hello Perl 6";
        }
    }

    $p5.call('test', Foo.new);

Run arbitrary Perl 5 code

Arbitrary Perl 5 code can be executed using Inline::Perl5's run($str) method. It accepts Perl 5 code as a string.

    use Inline::Perl5;
    my $p5 = Inline::Perl5.new;

    $p5.run(q'
        sub test {
            return 'Hello from Perl 5';
        }
    ');

Inherit from a Perl 5 class

The Inline::Perl5::Perl5Parent role allows convenient subclassing of Perl 5 packages in Perl 6. Pass the Perl 5 package's name as parameter to the role. Pass the Inline::Perl5 object as named parameter to your classes constructor when creating objects.

    $p5.run(q:heredoc/PERL5/);

    package Foo;

    sub test {
        my ($self) = @_;

        return $self->bar;
    }

    PERL5

    class Bar does Inline::Perl5::Perl5Parent['Foo'] {
        method bar {
            return "Perl6";
        }
    }

    use Inline::Perl5;
    my $p5 = Inline::Perl5.new;
    say Bar.new(perl5 => $p5).test;

BUILDING

You will need a perl 5 build with the -fPIC option (position independent code). Most distributions build their Perl 5 that way. When you use perlbrew, you have to build it as:

perlbrew install perl-5.20.0 -Duseshrplib

(or, if you want to use more than one Inline::Perl5 interpeter safely, for instance from within Perl 6 threads, add the -Dusemultiplicity option as well)

and then build Inline::Perl5 with

make

and test with

make test

AUTHOR

Stefan Seifert nine@detonation.org

MattOates/Inline-Perl5