Hi Leif, > A variation on this idea would be to define a certain scope, > instead of main:: for the multilingual strings. > $LANG::this = ... > $LANG::that = ...
I hadn't thought of that, but your suggestion looks to be a good approach. It looks like if I declare each language module, regardless of the language (or file name), to be "package Lang;" it will allow me to use the "$Lang::<variable>" syntax in the main program. Like usual, you have provided useful and helpful advice. Thank you. -- Michael # Michael Doran, Systems Librarian # University of Texas at Arlington # 817-272-5326 office # 817-688-1926 mobile # [EMAIL PROTECTED] # http://rocky.uta.edu/doran/ > -----Original Message----- > From: Leif Andersson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2008 3:20 PM > To: Doran, Michael D; Perl4lib > Subject: Re: Importing Perl package variables into a Perl > script with "require" > > Michael, > > Interesting question. > > There are probably several approaches to implementing > multilingual support. > I hope you get many responses to this question. I would > really like to see what others have to say. > > From me - just a few simple comments: > > I see two problems. > 1) to load a particular file, unknown at compile time. > 2) to "export" a variable into the main program > > The first you have solved with require ("do" would also be fine). > But you don't have to load a package, you can just load a file. > > The second: define your variable(s) with "our". > > #!/usr/bin/perl -wl > use strict; > > our %msg; > my $lang = $ARGV[0] ||'en'; > > require "Mylang_$lang.pl"; > > print $msg{alert}; > print $msg{success}; > __END__ > > And Mylang_en.pl and friends looks like > use strict; > %main::msg = ( > alert => 'ALERT', > success => 'OK', > ); > __END__ > > > A variation on this idea would be to define a certain scope, > instead of main:: for the multilingual strings. > $LANG::this = ... > $LANG::that = ... > > But is it actually anything wrong with your original idea of > using no strict 'refs' for that part of the code building up > the loading of a module? > > I don't know. > > Doing a little google-ing a found this article quite interesting: > http://www.drdobbsjournal.net/web-development/184416008 > > It is from The Perl Journal (May 2003), Autrijus Tang writing > about Web Localization and Perl. In that article he is > demonstrating the use of Locale::Maketext::Lexicon > > Probably too demanding for smaller projects, but still interesting. > > There is always a balance between how much work to spend on > solving a problem, how flexible and scalable it has to be, if > we like avoiding installing extra modules etc etc... > > Leif > > ====================================== > Leif Andersson, Systems Librarian > Stockholm University Library > SE-106 91 Stockholm > SWEDEN > Phone : +46 8 162769 > Mobile: +46 70 6904281 > > -----Ursprungligt meddelande----- > Från: Doran, Michael D [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Skickat: den 26 april 2008 02:46 > Till: Perl4lib > Ämne: Importing Perl package variables into a Perl script > with "require" > > Back-story: > > I have a Perl CGI program. The CGI program needs to utilize > variables in one of several separate configuration files > (packages). The different packages all contain the same > variables, but with different values for those variables. > Each package represents a different language for a > multilingual interface for the CGI program. e.g. English.pm, > French.pm, Spanish.pm. > > The CGI program can't determine which language package is > needed until it parses the form input and does a test based > on the value for a query string name/value pair. Based on > the test, I assign a value to a package load command (i.e. > 'use English' or 'require English'). Because of that, I > can't load the package with "use Package" since "use" runs at > compile time, before I can assign a value to it. > > So I am using the 'require' command, which executes at > runtime. All's good so far. > > Problem: > > When loading a module with 'require' AND ALSO using 'use > strict' I can't figure out how to utilize those package > variables *without* also using an explicit package name (e.g. > $English::button_label). Doing so is pretty straightforward > if I had been able to use 'use English', but it's not > straightforward (at least to me) on how to do it using > 'require English' [1]. > > At issue again, is not knowing what the appropriate package > name will be until runtime. I can brute force within the CGI > program by doing it along these lines (which also requires > that I set "no strict 'refs'": > > my ($var_1,$var_2,$var_3,$var_4); > { no strict 'refs'; > $var_1 = ${$lang_package . "::" . "var_1"}; > $var_2 = ${$lang_package . "::" . "var_2"}; > $var_3 = ${$lang_package . "::" . "var_3"}; > $var_4 = ${$lang_package . "::" . "var_4"}; } > > Below is what I want to do, reduced to the minimum (i.e. I > want test.cgi to print out the variable without specifying > the package name): > > test.cgi > ======== > #!/usr/local/bin/perl > use strict; > my $lang_package_file = "English.pm"; > require $lang_package_file; > print "My package variable \$language value is $language" . > "\n"; # This doesn't work [2] exit(0); > > English.pm > ========== > package English; > $language = "English"; > 1; > > I know I can turn off "use strict" but I've tried to walk the > straight and narrow with recent programming efforts, and I > hate to start backsliding. There's got to be a better, more > elegant way to do this and maintain 'use strict' in the main > CGI program, I'm just not getting it at the moment... > > -- Michael > > [1] I'm referring to using this stuff in the package, which > works great with 'use English' but not so great (for me > anyway) with 'require English'. > > package English; > require Exporter; > @ISA = qw(Exporter); > @EXPORT = qw($language $etc); > > [2] I get this when I run test.cgi: > > Global symbol "$language" requires explicit package name at > test.cgi line 5. > Execution of test.cgi aborted due to compilation errors. > > # Michael Doran, Systems Librarian > # University of Texas at Arlington > # 817-272-5326 office > # 817-688-1926 mobile > # [EMAIL PROTECTED] > # http://rocky.uta.edu/doran/ >
