Well, that (half) explains that bit. Thanks.

Problem is, in the sample (pod) code,

• $CACHE is used, but never given any value.
• In this particular use of open, its not clear what value I would give the scalar variable of the same name?
• It appears as if, in the case of Inline::Files, that it is the name of the scalar variable of the same name as the filehandle that is being used - which seems (to me) to be a little redundant?

I freely admit to still being a newbie to this stuff, but to implicitly use the name of an undeclared, uninitialised global variable, with the same name as a supplied filehandle, to supply the name of the virtual file to open.....(phew)...seems...erm...a little confusing?

Of course $CACHE is given a value, even if grepping for CACHE didn't reveal it.

I don't know Inline::Files myself, but one minute browsing of the module and I found:

    my (%symbols, $source);
    foreach my $vfile (vf_load($file, $SOVFM_pat)) {
        my $symbol = vf_marker($vfile);
        $symbol =~ s/^__|__\n//g;
        push @{$symbols{$symbol}}, $vfile;
    }
    
    foreach my $symbol (keys %symbols) {
        no strict 'refs';
        my $fq_symbol = "${package}::${symbol}";
        @$fq_symbol = @{$symbols{$symbol}};
        $$fq_symbol = $symbols{$symbol}[0];
        my $impl = tie *$fq_symbol, $class, $fq_symbol, -w $file;
        tie %$fq_symbol, $class."::Data", $impl;
    }
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I think I can guess what that does.

Abigail

Ok, I admit it. No matter how much I look at that code, even my guesses at its function read like mental line-noise. :)

Then again, I've spent several days (trying) to work out how some (most) of your regex code works (this has been a permenant resident in my editor for two weeks now>). I guess I'm gonna need rather more than my current 8-weeks association with Perl to achieve that level of understanding.

I'm afraid my feelings re: this implicit use of the name of a filehandle to give a value to an autoloaded, global variable of the same name, is that it is at best, unintuative, and at worst, wholey redundant.

Maybe if I had experienced Perl 4 (or earlier) where this sort of thing was the norm, it would be less so. For now, I can only rely on the good ministrations of the more experienced, as yourself, to set me straight when I err.

Thanks again.

BrowserUk wrote:

$CACHE is used, but never given any value

have you tried print $INLINE in your program? it prints for me:

P:/dada/test.pl(00000000000000000259)

so it *has* a value. it all happens behind your shoulders, but it happens indeed.

<hint>remember, you're using a module written by </code>TheDamian</hint>

cheers,
Aldo

__END__
$_=q,just perl,,s, , another ,,s,$, hacker,,print;
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