It's some Glib overloading. From
muppet's explanation on the Perl/Gtk2 maillist:
> On 25/02/07, muppet <scott@asofyet.org> wrote:
>> Well, TIMTOWDI, of course. :-) But, yes, the ">=" operator, which
+is
>> overloaded for Glib::Flags bitsets to mean the same as "&", which i
+s
>> "are all of the flags listed on the right hand side set in the left
>> hand side?" is how i would write it.
>
> I can see that &, >= and * should be the same for this example.
>
>> The Glib::Flags operators are explained in the "This Is Now That"
>> section of the Glib manpage.
>
> But in the manpage, it implies (to me at least) that there is a
> difference between &, >= and *. Is there difference?
For a boolean test, no. & and >= are implemented differently, but *
and & are the same. The names (and operators) are derived from set
theory, but you can also use any knowledge of binary logic operations
+
from C.
(Warning: potentially redundant but intended-to-be complete
information follows.)
Glib.pm contains this:
package Glib::Flags;
use overload
'bool' => \&bool,
'+' => \&union, '|' => \&union,
'-' => \&sub,
'>=' => \&ge,
'==' => \&eq, 'eq' => \&eq, # eq for is_deeply in
Test::More
'*' => \&intersect, '&' => \&intersect,
'/' => \&xor, '^' => \&xor,
'@{}' => \&as_arrayref,
'""' => sub { "[ @{$_[0]} ]" },
fallback => 1;
Those subs are implemented essentially like this:
bool := NOT NOT a
if any of the bits in a are set, the expression evaluates to TR
+UE
union := a OR b
the result contains all of the bits set in a and b
that is, the result is the union of the two sets.
the | mnemonic is for the C (and Perl) bitwise OR operator.
the + mnemonic is for union of two sets -- you're adding them
together.
sub := a AND NOT b
the result contains all the bits set in a minus the bits that
were also on in b.
this is subtracting the set of b from the set of a.
the - mnemonic is awesome, because "a & ~b" is bizarre looking.
ge := (a AND b) IS b
the result is TRUE if the bits in b are on in a.
other bits may be on in a, but they are ignored (by the AND).
hence, this is true if the set of a is greater than or equal
to the set of b.
eq := a IS b
the result is TRUE iff the same set of bits are on in both.
intersect := a AND b
the result contains all of the bits that are on in both a and b
+.
that is, it returns the intersection of sets a and b.
the & mnemonic is the C (and Perl) bitwise AND operator.
the * mnemonic is for the intersection of two sets.
xor := a XOR b
the result contains all of the bits that are on in either or
both a and b.
the bits that are on in both are not included; this is the
exclusive or of the two sets.
the ^ mnemonic is for the C (and Perl) bitwise XOR operator.
All that said, i think the only ones i have ever used are the >= and
bool operators.