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A collection of tools and building blocks for the Parrot Virtual Machine.
Pages: HomeDevelopmentArticles and ExamplesWinxed

Functions and Arguments

Functions are the most basic building blocks of a structured program. We’ve already seen a few functions used throughout previous examples, but now we’re going to take a very close look at them.

Sub and invoke VTABLE

The Parrot built-in type Sub is used to implement functions and methods, and is the base type for other things like Coroutines which we will introduce in a little bit.

Subs and subroutine-like behavior is provided through the invoke vtable at the Parrot level. Any type that provides the invoke vtable can be used like a sub or a method.

class Foo {
    function invoke[vtable](var args, ...) { ... }

function do_stuff() {
    var f = new Foo;

Writing Programs

Let’s take a small diversion and talk about programs. Program execution starts at a main function. There are two types of main functions; One named “main” and one marked with the [main] modifier:

function main() { ... }
function main(var args) { ... }
function main[main]() { ... }
function main[main](var args) { ... }

For the main function the arguments list is currently optional, although this is deprecated in Parrot. Eventually the argument to main will be required.

There is a difference between a function named “main” and a function marked as [main]: The function named “main” will be executed when the program is interpreted directly by the winxed compiler. The function marked [main] will be executed by Parrot when the program has been compiled to PIR or bytecode and executed later. Here’s a short example program:

function main() { say("In Winxed Main!"); }
function foo[main]() { say("In Parrot Main!"); }

Save this as “test.winxed” and run it from the command prompt:

> winxed test.winxed
In Winxed Main!

> winxed -c -o test.pir test.winxed
> parrot test.pir
In Parrot Main!

These two mechanisms might be reconciled one day, but for now it’s safe to always name your main function “main” and mark it [main] if you want the behavior for both types of invocation to be the same.

Another point worth making is that if you do not mark any functions as [main], Parrot will automatically select the main function as the first function in the file. Since winxed might be outputting functions into the PIR file in a different order than they are defined in the Winxed file, this is not a good thing to rely on. This behavior is also deprecated at the Parrot level. Eventually Parrot will throw an error if you attempt to execute a PIR or PBC file without an explicit [main] function.

Argument Passing

Basic Arguments and Parameters

We’ve already seen some basic arguments in examples. The arguments that you are probably most familiar with are called “positional” arguments because they are passed by position. There are also named arguments which are passed by name.

Arguments are passed by position and the numbers are checked for mismatch. Parrot will throw an exception if the number of arguments passed does not satisfy the parameters expected. Notice the word “satisfy”, instead of the word “match”. There are mechanisms in Parrot that allow the number of passed arguments not to exactly match the number of expected parameters. We’ll talk about some of those in a little bit.

Arguments automatically coerce between primitive types. If you pass an int argument and the function expects a string parameter, the value will be automatically converted. This is the same for combinations of the primitive types.

Named Parameters

Arguments can be passed and accessed by name:

function foo(var p, var n [named("Second")]) { }

function main[main]() {
    foo(1, 2:[named("Second")]

Slurpy and Optional Parameters

Paramters can be marked as optional, which means they do not need to be passed to the function at all. There are two types: optional positional parameters fill in for positional arguments and must come at the end of all positionals. Optional named parameters fill in for named arguments and must come at the end of all named parameters. Each optional parameter may also include an [opt_flag], which is an int set to 1 if the value was passed and 0 otherwise.

function foo(var a [optional], int has_a [opt_flag])
    if (!has_a)
        a = <some default value>;

function bar(var a [named,optional], int has_a)
    if (!has_a)
        a = <some default value>;

function main[main]() {
    foo();                  // has_a = 0
    foo(1);                 // has_a = 1
    bar();                  // has_a = 0
    bar(2:[named("a")]);    // has_a = 1

Slurpy parameters create an array (for positionals) or a hash (for named) to collect extra paramters. Slurpy parameters must appear at the end of the argument list only.

function foo(var p [slurpy], var n [named,slurpy]) {
    // p is an array of all positionals
    // n is a hash of all named arguments

Parameters must be declared in this order:

  1. All normal positional parameters
  2. All optional positional parameters (and associated opt_flag )
  3. A single, optional, slurpy array
  4. All normal named parameters
  5. All optional named parameters
  6. A single, optional, slurpy hash

Parrot will throw all sorts of exceptions and create problems if you define arguments in other orders.

When combining optional and slurpy parameters, it’s important to notice that all optional parameters will be filled with arguments before any are inserted into the slurpy array. For named arguments, the slurpy hash contains any named arguments which are not explicitly accepted by a different argument. There may be items in a slurpy hash even if all the [optional,named] parameters have not been filled yet.

Flat Arguments

Arrays and Hashes can be flattened when passed as arguments. An array can be flattened into a number of different individual positional arguments, and hashes can be flattened into a number of different named arguments. Here are some examples:

function MyFunction(int a, int b, var c [slurpy]) { }

function main[main]() {
    var args = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

In this example, the parameter a will have the value 1, b will be 2, and the variable c will be the array [3, 4, 5].

function MyFunction(int a [named], int b [named],
        int c [named,optional], int has_c [opt_flag],
        var d [named,slurpy]) { ... {

function main[main]) {

In this example, a contains 1, b is 2, c is 3, has_c is 1, and d is the hash {"d" : 4, "e" : 5}.

Here is a simple function to remove a single item from a hash by name:

function delete_hash_entry(var x [named("Foo"),optional], var h [named,slurpy]) {
    return h;

This isn’t the most efficient way to do it, nor is it easily extendible, but this should demonstrate some of the uses of the functionality.

Multiple Dispatch

Multiple Dispatch is supported in Winxed and support is growing. Basic dispatch can be done by matching primitive types:

function Foo(var a, var b) { ... }
function Foo(string a, int b) { ... }
function Foo(var a) { ... }

If you have multiple functions with the same name in the same namespace, they will be automaticaly converted into multi functions or MultiSub PMCs. The number and types of arguments used to call the MultiSub will determine how the call is dispatched.

If you need more control over the multiple dispatch, or if you need to be able to dispatch based on classes, you need to use the more verbose [multi] syntax.

function Foo [multi(int, string, class Bar.Baz)](int a, string b, var c) { ... }

Parrot’s multidispatch engine will look at the numbers, types, and classes for each to determine the correct candidate to dispatch to.


Basic Returns

function Foo() {
    return 5;

function main[main]() {
    var f = Foo();

No Return Values

Multi Returns

Parrot uses a control mechanism called Continuation-Passing Style (CPS). In a CPS system function calls and returns are the same: Everything is a call. This means that function returns use the same internal mechanisms as function calls do, and function returns can pass arguments back to the caller in the same way as the caller passes arguments back to the function.

function myfunction() {
    return 1, 2, 3;

:(a, b, c) = myfunction(1, 2, 3);

Coroutines and yield

Coroutines are like functions which do not exit, but maintain state and can continue execution again at a later point. Coroutines are differentiated by using the yield keyword. A yield is like a return, it passes results back to the caller. The next time the coroutine is called, execution continues from the point of the yield. Coroutines do not reset until they return. After a return, the Coroutine starts from the top again like normal.

function MyCoroutine() {
    yield 1;
    yield 2;
    yield 3;
    return 4;

function main[main]() {

This prints the line “12341234” as expected. Coroutines can also be used for implementing global data values or singletons:

function MyValue() {
    var data = new Foo();
        yield data;

As an example, here is how the Singleton pattern might be implemented in Winxed:

class MySingleton {
    function Instance[nsentry]() {
        var value = new MySingleton;
            yield value;

function main[main]() {
    using MySingleton.Instance;
    var s = Instance();


Closures are anonymous functions that are created and contain state information from the function that created them. A closure “closes” over the current lexical scope where it is created, keeping references to the variables used in the parent function. Creating a closure forces the parent context to stay alive so that the variables in that context can be referenced by the closure.

function foo(int a) {
    float b = 2.5;

    return function() {
        return a + b;

function main[main]() {
    var f5 = foo(5);
    var f7 = foo(7);
    say(f5());      // "7.5"
    say(f7());      // "9.5"
    say(f5());      // "7.5"
    say(f7());      // "9.5"

The function keyword is used to create normal subroutines (in namespaces), methods (in classes) and closures (in functions). It is important to remember that all functions are objects and can be passed around like objects.


Inlining code and avoiding the call/return sequence entirely can be a big optimization boost. Some compilers are able to automatically find inlinable functions and inline their contents at compile time. In winxed it’s not so easy for the compiler to do automatically, but you can manually specify certain routines as being intended for inlining. The Winxed compiler will then inline these function bodies.

The syntax for writing an inline function is this:

inline foo(var a, int b, ...) return int
    return 4;

This is just an example and the ellipses are not literal code. The inline keyword is used instead of the function keyword and the return type of the block must be specified with the declaration. It’s important to note that inlined blocks do not work with multiple returns or returns with PCC flag modifiers. They also do not allow parameters with PCC flag modifiers.

Blocks marked inline are for inlining only. These functions are not compiled separately, are not included in a namespace and are not searchable at runtime.