package question

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Fellow Monks,
In the book Learning Perl Objects, References and Modules, there is a code example that look like this:

{ package Animal;
  sub speak {
    our $class = shift;
    print "a $class goes ", $class->sound, "!\n";
  }
}

{ package Cow;
  our @ISA = qw(Animal);
  sub sound { "moooo" }
}

Animal::speak("Cow");
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Are the curly braces around each package necessary? the code appears to work without them. What purpose do they serve?

Thanks
Jonathan

Comment on package question Download Code

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Re: package question by merlyn (Sage) on Jan 09, 2006 at 17:12 UTC
They limit the scope of the `package` directive, since package names are lexically scoped. The examples would work without it, as long as you remember to add `package main;` before the main part of your code. -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.	[reply]
Re: package question by Roy Johnson (Monsignor) on Jan 09, 2006 at 17:14 UTC
They limit the scope of the `package` statements. The net effect is that the last line is in package `main` without your having to specify it. Caution: Contents may have been coded under pressure.	[reply] [d/l] [select]