Enums for Perl: Adopting Devel::CallParser and Building Enum::Declare

Adopting one from Zefram

Back in 2011, Andrew Main, known to the Perl community as Zefram, released Devel::CallParser. It was a quiet piece of infrastructure: a C API that let XS modules attach custom argument parsers to Perl subroutines. Where the core's PL_keyword_plugin API was awkward to work with directly, CallParser gave you a structured way to extend Perl's syntax from C.

Zefram maintained it through 2013, fixing compatibility issues with indirect and Sub::StrictDecl, working around padrange optimiser changes, and shipping version 0.002. Then silence. The module sat on CPAN, unmaintained, while Perl kept moving.

By the current year and perl version it was breaking. I personally could not install it locally on my hardened macOS runtimes, many reports of issues on threaded builds, shifted qerror internals, and many red reports on CPAN testers. I needed CallParser for Object::Proto::Sugar, so I adopted it and so far have shipped six dev releases (0.003_01 through 0.003_06) to try get it passing green again on all envs. Not glamorous work, but Zefram built something worth preserving.

(RIP Zefram... I didn't know them personally but the infrastructure they left behind is still making new things possible.)

The Idea

With CallParser working again, I decided to implement an idea I'd thought about for a long time: give Perl a proper enum keyword.

Not a hash. Not a bunch of use constant lines. Not a class/object pretending to be an enumeration. An actual keyword that declares an enum at compile time, generates real constants, and gives you a meta object for introspection.

Enum::Declare

Here's what it looks like:

use Enum::Declare;

enum Colour {
    Red,
    Green,
    Blue
}

say Red;    # 0
say Green;  # 1
say Blue;   # 2

That's it. enum is a real keyword, parsed at compile time by an XS callback wired through cv_set_call_parser. The constants are true constants, not subroutine calls, not tied variables. The compiler sees them.

Explicit Values

enum HttpStatus {
    OK        = 200,
    Created   = 201,
    NotFound  = 404,
    Internal  = 500
}

String Enums

enum LogLevel :Str {
    Debug,
    Info,
    Warn = "warning",
    Error,
    Fatal
}

say Debug;  # "debug"
say Warn;   # "warning"

Without an explicit value, :Str lowercases the constant name. With one, it uses what you gave it.

Bitflags

enum Perms :Flags {
    Read,
    Write,
    Execute
}

my $rw = Read | Write;
say "can read"  if $rw & Read;
say "can write" if $rw & Write;

:Flags assigns powers of two automatically. Combine them with bitwise operators as you'd expect.

Exporting

# In your module:
enum StatusCode :Export {
    OK      = 200,
    NotFound = 404
}

# Consumers get the constants automatically, or use tags:
use MyModule qw(:StatusCode);

Meta Objects

Every enum gets a meta object accessible by calling the enum name as a function:

my $meta = Colour();

say $meta->count;           # 3
say $meta->name(0);         # "Red"
say $meta->value('Blue');   # 2
say $meta->valid(1);        # true

my @pairs = $meta->pairs;  # (Red => 0, Green => 1, Blue => 2)

Exhaustive Matching

Colour()->match($val, {
    Red   => sub { "stop" },
    Green => sub { "go" },
    Blue  => sub { "sky" },
});

Miss a variant and it dies. Every key/branch must be covered.

How It Works

Under the hood, use Enum::Declare installs an XS stub named enum into the calling package, then attaches a custom parser via cv_set_call_parser. When Perl encounters enum during compilation, the parser callback fires and:

1. Reads the enum name (lex_read_ident)
2. Reads optional attributes - :Str, :Flags, :Export, :Type
3. Reads the { Name = Value, ... } variant block
4. Builds the constant subs and enum data structures
5. Installs the meta object
6. Optionally wires up @EXPORT / @EXPORT_OK

All of this happens at compile time. By the time Perl starts executing your code, the constants exist, the meta object is ready, and the exports are in place.

Enum::Declare::Common

Once the keyword worked, the obvious next step was a library of common enums:

use Enum::Declare::Common::HTTP qw(:StatusCode :Method);
use Enum::Declare::Common::Calendar qw(:Weekday :Month);
use Enum::Declare::Common::Color qw(:CSS);

say OK;        # 200
say GET;       # "get"
say Monday;    # 1
say January;   # 1

Enum::Declare::Common ships 20 submodules covering HTTP status codes and methods, ISO country and currency codes, MIME types, 148 named CSS hex colours, timezone offsets, Unix permissions, log levels, and more. All built on the same enum keyword, all with meta objects, all exportable.

Integration with Object::Proto

Every enum in the Common collection is declared with the :Type attribute:

enum StatusCode :Type :Export {
    OK      = 200,
    Created = 201,
    ...
}

This registers the enum as a type in Object::Proto at load time, so you can use enum names directly as slot types:

use Enum::Declare::Common::HTTP qw(:StatusCode :Method);
use Enum::Declare::Common::LogLevel qw(:Level);
use Object::Proto;

object 'APIRequest',
    'method:Method:required',
    'status:StatusCode',
    'log_level:Level:default(' . Info . ')',
;

my $req = new APIRequest method => GET;
$req->status(OK);       # valid
$req->status(9999);     # dies - not a valid StatusCode
$req->status(200);      # coercion - resolves to OK

The type checks and coercions run in C via object_register_type_xs_ex. No Perl callback overhead. A single pair of C functions serves every enum type, only the data pointer differs.

If you're writing Perl and you've been using hashes or use constant blocks to fake enums, give Enum::Declare a try. In my opinion it's enums the way they should have always worked.

As always if you have any questions just post below.