I'm very new with PERL and have been given a task of doing some maint.
on an existing really big PERL program. What I'd like to ask is if the
changes
I want to implement will work and ask for suggestions on how to make one
major change working with subroutines.
The application makes use of a number of arrays that contain categories
and subcategories. What I'd like to do is to move these into a separate
file (extras.pl) and reference it with a "require". These structures
were
in the mainline program. Adding new categories involved editing the
mainline code, so my thought was it would be easier and less trouble-
prone to put them in a separate file to which new ones could be added
easily. What I want to add to the external "required" file are these
objects. Can I do this pretty transparently and easily? Will I run into
any
serious problems by moving them to a separate file?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------
use vars qw(%config %category %paper %records);
%category = (
p01 => 'PAPER ITEMS GENERAL',
p02 => 'Diaries and Journals',
p03 => 'Indentures',
p04 => 'Letters',
p05 => 'Certificates',
p10 => 'Other Paper Items',
r01 => 'RECORDS GENERAL',
r02 => 'Birth and Death',
r03 => 'Marriage ',
r04 => 'Wills ',
r05 => 'Census',
r06 => 'Court and Probate',
r07 => 'Immigration and Ship Lists',
r08 => 'Military',
r09 => 'Maps',
r10 => 'Other Records',
);
%paper = (
p01 => 'PAPER ITEMS GENERAL',
p02 => 'Diaries and Journals',
p03 => 'Indentures',
p04 => 'Letters',
p05 => 'Certificates',
p10 => 'Other Paper Items',
);
%records = (
r01 => 'RECORDS GENERAL',
r02 => 'Birth and Death',
r03 => 'Marriage ',
r04 => 'Wills ',
r05 => 'Census',
r06 => 'Court and Probate',
r07 => 'Immigration and Ship Lists',
r08 => 'Military',
r09 => 'Maps',
r10 => 'Other Records',
);
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
Secondly, when additional categories are added, the program is coded
such
that a new subroutine has to be inserted dealing with that category. For
example,
there would be a subroutine added for "paper" and one for "records". In
each
subroutine there are only 3 "references" to the item. For example, in
the "paper"
subroutine there are only these 3 places where "paper stuff" is
mentioned. Sample
is below (with non-relevant code removed). So, if we had 10 categories
there
would be ten subroutines - one for each category - differing only in the
3 places
where the category topic is mentioned. My question - is it possible to
create only
one "generic" subroutine that could have the topic name plugged in
rather than
having ten almost-alike subroutines? If so, can you recommend a sample
code
snippet that I can model the procedure after?
These subroutines are accessed by :
elsif ($form{'action'} eq 'paper') { &paper; } #Paper Items Category
elsif ($form{'action'} eq 'records') { &records; } #Records Category
sub paper {
&chkclose;
print "<p align=center><b><font color=$config{'colortablebody'}
face=Arial size=2>Paper Categories</font></b></td></tr>";
my $key;
foreach $key (sort keys %paper) {
}}
sub records {
&chkclose;
print "<p align=center><b><font color=$config{'colortablebody'}
face=Arial size=2>Records Categories</font></b></td></tr>";
my $key;
foreach $key (sort keys %records) {
}}
Thanks for your suggestions, ideas, comments, etc.
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