Re: using 'use' conditionally

You can't always replace 'use' with 'require' because they work slightly differently. 'use' works at compile time and also imports stuff into your code. 'require' works at run time and never imports stuff.

This example isn't exactly like your problem, but I think it might be useful anyways.

BEGIN {
    if ($^O eq 'MSWin32') {
        eval "use APDM::ConfigWin32";
        print $@ if ($@);
    }
    else {
        eval "use APDM::ConfigUnix";
        print $@ if ($@);
    }
}
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Re: Re: using 'use' conditionally by BUU (Prior) on Nov 06, 2002 at 02:09 UTC
If you care that much about importing from the module: `if($opt_g) { require Tk; Tk->import; }` [download] Difference goes away! wow.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: Re: using 'use' conditionally by belden (Friar) on Nov 06, 2002 at 22:46 UTC
Difference goes away! wow. BUU is right. Additionally, blssu, you don't need to import if you're going to use the OO interface of whichever module you required... because good OO interfaces don't export their methods. blyman setenv EXINIT 'set noai ts=2'	[reply]
Re: Re: Re: using 'use' conditionally by blssu (Pilgrim) on Nov 07, 2002 at 16:56 UTC
Sure, that's pretty close to what 'use' does now, but the 'eval' helps future-proof your code. The hand-rolled import isn't clever, it's just extra work. Laziness is one of the three pillars... The common efficiency and security disadvantages of 'eval' aren't issues here because (1) run-time 'require' must do an 'eval' eventually anyway, and (2) the 'eval' uses a string constant that is easy to understand and verify.	[reply]