new [\%args]

fold_lists

If true, fold lisp lists (e.g. "(1 2 3)") into Perl listrefs, e.g. [1, 2, 3]

Defaults to true.

fold_alists

If true, fold lisp alists into perl hashrefs. e.g.

"((fg . red) (bg . black) (weight . bold))"

would become

    {
        \*fg       => \*red,
        \*bg       => \*black,
        \*weight   => \*bold
    }
    

Alists will only be folded if they are a list of conses, all of which have scalars as both their "car" and "cdr" (See "scalarp" in Data::SExpression::Cons)

This option implies "fold_lists"

Defaults to false.

symbol_case

Can be "up", "down", or "undef", to fold symbol case to uppercase, lowercase, or to leave as-is.

Defaults to leaving symbols alone.

use_symbol_class

If true, symbols become instances of Data::SExpression::Symbol instead of globrefs.

Defaults to false

fold_dashes

If true, dash characters in symbols ("-") will be folded to the more perlish underscore, "_". This is especially convenient when symbols are being converted to globrefs.

Defaults to false.

read STRING

In scalar context, returns the expression parsed as a perl data structure; In list context, also return the part of STRING left unparsed. This means you can read all the expressions in a string with:

    my @sexps;
    my $sexp;
    while(1) {
        eval {
            ($sexp, $text) = $ds->read($text);
        };
        last if $@;
        push @sexps, $sexp;
    }

This method converts Lisp SExpressions into perl data structures by the following rules:

Numbers and Strings become perl scalars

Lisp differentiates between the types; perl doesn't.

Symbols become globrefs in main::

This means they become something like \*main::foo, or \*::foo for short. To convert from a string to a symbol, you can use "qualify_to_ref" in Symbol, with "main" as the package.

But see "use_symbol_class" if you'd prefer to get back objects.

Conses become Data::SExpression::Cons objects

See Data::SExpression::Cons for how to deal with these. See also the "fold_lists" and "fold_alists" arguments to "new".

If "fold_lists" is false, the Lisp empty list "()" becomes the perl "undef". With "fold_lists", it turns into "[]" as you would expect.

Quotation is parsed as in scheme

This means that "'foo" is parsed like "(quote foo)", "`foo" like "(quasiquote foo)", and ",foo" like "(unquote foo)".

cons CAR CDR

consp THING

scalarp THING

new_cons CAR CDR

new_symbol NAME

new_string CONTENT