Hi, I have a sort sub that I want to be able to call from a different package than the one in which it is defined. The problem is that $a and $b are in the package of the caller so the sub doesn't see them. For example: 
#!/usr/footprints_perl/bin/perl --

package joe;
my @names = ('joe', 'aaron');

package FP;
sub sortNames ($$)
{
    print "$a vs $b\n";
    return $a cmp $b;
}

package joe;
my @sorted = sort {FP::sortNames} @names;

print "sorted : @sorted\n";

__END__
 vs 
sorted : joe aaron

[download]
I found a description of this very same problem, and a solution (use prototypes) in japhy's Resorting to Sorting tutorial (in the very last section). However, I cut and pasted his example script into a file, and it didn't work: it printed the original unsorted data.

What's the typical way to get around this? Any idea why japhy's example doesn't work?

-Joe

In reply to sort sub in a different package by blahblahblah

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