package utf8;
-if (ord('A') != 193) { # make things more pragmatic for EBCDIC folk
$utf8::hint_bits = 0x00800000;
Carp::croak("Undefined subroutine $AUTOLOAD called");
}
-}
-
1;
__END__
=head1 NAME
-utf8 - Perl pragma to enable/disable UTF-8 in source code
+utf8 - Perl pragma to enable/disable UTF-8 (or UTF-EBCDIC) in source code
=head1 SYNOPSIS
See L<perlunicode> for the exact details.
The C<use utf8> pragma tells the Perl parser to allow UTF-8 in the
-program text in the current lexical scope. The C<no utf8> pragma
-tells Perl to switch back to treating the source text as literal
-bytes in the current lexical scope.
+program text in the current lexical scope (allow UTF-EBCDIC on EBCDIC based
+platforms). The C<no utf8> pragma tells Perl to switch back to treating
+the source text as literal bytes in the current lexical scope.
This pragma is primarily a compatibility device. Perl versions
earlier than 5.6 allowed arbitrary bytes in source code, whereas
source text. Until UTF-8 becomes the default format for source
text, this pragma should be used to recognize UTF-8 in the source.
When UTF-8 becomes the standard source format, this pragma will
-effectively become a no-op. This pragma already is a no-op on
-EBCDIC platforms (where it is alright to code perl in EBCDIC
-rather than UTF-8).
+effectively become a no-op. For convenience in what follows the
+term UTF-X is used to refer to UTF-8 on ASCII and ISO Latin based
+platforms and UTF-EBCDIC on EBCDIC based platforms.
Enabling the C<utf8> pragma has the following effects:
-=over
+=over 4
=item *
Bytes in the source text that have their high-bit set will be treated
as being part of a literal UTF-8 character. This includes most literals
such as identifiers, string constants, constant regular expression patterns
-and package names.
+and package names. On EBCDIC platforms characters in the Latin 1
+character set are treated as being part of a literal UTF-EBCDIC character.
=item *
-In the absence of inputs marked as UTF-8, regular expressions within the
+In the absence of inputs marked as UTF-X, regular expressions within the
scope of this pragma will default to using character semantics instead
of byte semantics.
@bytes_or_chars = split //, $data; # may split to bytes if data
- # $data isn't UTF-8
+ # $data isn't UTF-X
{
use utf8; # force char semantics
@chars = split //, $data; # splits characters
}
+=back
+
+=head2 Utility functions
+
+The following functions are defined in the C<utf8::> package by the perl core.
+
+=over 4
+
+=item * $num_octets = utf8::upgrade($string);
+
+Converts internal representation of string to the perls internal UTF-X form.
+Returns the number of octets necessary to represent the string as UTF-X.
+
+=item * utf8::downgrade($string[, CHECK])
+
+Converts internal representation of string to be un-encoded bytes.
+
+=item * utf8::encode($string)
+
+Converts (in-place) I<$string> from logical characters to octet sequence
+representing it in perl's UTF-X encoding.
+
+=item * $flag = utf8::decode($string)
+
+Attempts to convert I<$string> in-place from perl's UTF-X encoding into logical characters.
+
+=back
+
=head1 SEE ALSO
L<perlunicode>, L<bytes>