On Wed, 2006-19-04 at 14:05 -0600, siegfried wrote:
> This code works, but I don't understand it. It is in a source file with the
> extension of ".pm". I have a static variable agent that needs to be
> initialized prior to the first function call.
>
> Should not I need to use the BEGIN statement so the cookie and proxy
> functions get called? Apparently they are getting called anyway. The begin
> statement just gave me syntax errors.
>
> And what is the deal with @ISA? Is that not used for inheritance? What is
> the descendant class here? And what does __PACKAGE__ mean?
>
> Thanks,
> siegfried
__PACKAGE__ is the name of the current package, see `perldoc perldata`
and search for 'Special Literals'
Below is a script and a module to show why you don't need BEGIN. In
short, the 'main' part of a module is executed when it is used.
myscript
--------
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
BEGIN {
print "BEGIN part of myscript\n";
}
print "main part of myscript before `use MyModule;`\n";
use MyModule;
print "main part of myscript after `use MyModule;`\n";
END {
print "END part of myscript\n";
}
__END__
MyModule.pm
-----------
#!/
# MyModule.pm
BEGIN {
print "BEGIN part of MyModule.pm\n";
}
print "'main' part of MyModule.pm\n";
END {
print "END part of MyModule.pm\n";
}
1;
__END__
--
__END__
Just my 0.00000002 million dollars worth,
--- Shawn
"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."
Aristotle
* Perl tutorials at http://perlmonks.org/?node=Tutorials
* A searchable perldoc is at http://perldoc.perl.org/
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