Is there any way in Perl to do Java-style import statements that allow you to shorten the name of the module you're interested in? For example, in Java you can say either: 

import java.util.ArrayList;
....
ArrayList al = new ArrayList();
--or--
java.util.ArrayList al = new java.util.ArrayList();

[download]

It seems to me that in Perl we generally do the equivalent of the latter, and so end up with statements like Bric::Util::Grp::Asset->new() which to me is a blight on an otherwise nicely written body of code (Bricolage).

I know just enough about import, pragmas, and AUTOLOAD to know it's possible to load a module in such a way that it can be referenced by an abbreviated name, but I don't know of any idiomatic way of doing it. Shouldn't use do this?

TIA, David.

"The dead do not recognize context" -- Kai, Lexx

In reply to Pragma (more) like Java's 'import'? by djantzen

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