Support C< $coderef->($x,$y) >

Randal Schwartz said:
> Some time in October, 1994, Larry Wall said:
> > : All other references you can follow with ->, what about code refs?
> > Aw, look, I'd really like that feature in, but I think it's a bit
> > too close to the release for that.
> Hey Chip,
> Look, Larry said he'd really like that feature

Larry said that?  That change is like two lines, it's in!

Tricked-into-doing-by: Randal Schwartz <merlyn@stonehenge.com>

4 files changed, 31 insertions, 8 deletions

diff --git a/pod/perldelta.pod b/pod/perldelta.pod
index 930773ca02..f4a4d232ca 100644
--- a/pod/perldelta.pod
+++ b/pod/perldelta.pod
@@ -190,6 +190,24 @@ It is now possible to build Perl with AT&T's sfio IO package
 instead of stdio.  See L<perlapio> for more details, and
 the F<INSTALL> file for how to use it.
 
+=head2 New and changed syntax
+
+=over
+
+=item $coderef->(PARAMS)
+
+A subroutine reference may now be suffixed with an arrow and a
+(possibly empty) parameter list.  This syntax denotes a call of the
+referenced subroutine, with the given parameters (if any).
+
+This new syntax follows the pattern of C<$hashref-E<gt>{FOO}> and
+C<$aryref-E<gt>[$foo]>; now, C<&$subref($foo)> may now be written
+C<$subref-E<gt>($foo)>.  All of these arrow terms may be chained;
+thus, C<&{$table-E<gt>{FOO}}($bar)> may now be written
+C<$table-E<gt>{FOO}->($bar)>.
+
+=back
+
 =head2 New and changed builtin constants
 
 =over
diff --git a/pod/perldsc.pod b/pod/perldsc.pod
index aea53ae442..48750dd5de 100644
--- a/pod/perldsc.pod
+++ b/pod/perldsc.pod
@@ -698,8 +698,8 @@ many different sorts:
      print $rec->{LOOKUP}{"key"};
      ($first_k, $first_v) = each %{ $rec->{LOOKUP} };
 
-     $answer = &{ $rec->{THATCODE} }($arg);
-     $answer = &{ $rec->{THISCODE} }($arg1, $arg2);
+     $answer = $rec->{THATCODE}->($arg);
+     $answer = $rec->{THISCODE}->($arg1, $arg2);
 
      # careful of extra block braces on fh ref
      print { $rec->{HANDLE} } "a string\n";
diff --git a/pod/perlref.pod b/pod/perlref.pod
index cf793652f7..6aa086088d 100644
--- a/pod/perlref.pod
+++ b/pod/perlref.pod
@@ -318,14 +318,15 @@ it's presumably referencing.  That would be case 3.
 
 =item 3.
 
-The case of individual array elements arises often enough that it gets
-cumbersome to use method 2.  As a form of syntactic sugar, the two
-lines like that above can be written:
+Subroutine calls and lookups of individual array elements arise often
+enough that it gets cumbersome to use method 2.  As a form of
+syntactic sugar, the examples for method 2 may be written:
 
-    $arrayref->[0] = "January";
-    $hashref->{"KEY"} = "VALUE";
+    $arrayref->[0] = "January";   # Array element
+    $hashref->{"KEY"} = "VALUE";  # Hash element
+    $coderef->(1,2,3);            # Subroutine call
 
-The left side of the array can be any expression returning a reference,
+The left side of the arrow can be any expression returning a reference,
 including a previous dereference.  Note that C<$array[$x]> is I<NOT> the
 same thing as C<$array-E<gt>[$x]> here:
 
diff --git a/pod/perltoc.pod b/pod/perltoc.pod
index 80004683f1..7f1973d366 100644
--- a/pod/perltoc.pod
+++ b/pod/perltoc.pod
@@ -924,6 +924,10 @@ CGI script to do bad things?
 
 =item Internal change: PerlIO abstraction interface
 
+=item New and changed syntax
+
+$coderef->(PARAMS)
+
 =item New and changed builtin constants
 
 __PACKAGE__