From: Jarkko Hietaniemi Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 14:33:49 +0000 (+0000) Subject: PerlIO and Encode doc cleanup and tweaks. X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=47bfe92fb81ca6f2d7b499ac0c77dd56550ac150;p=p5sagit%2Fp5-mst-13.2.git PerlIO and Encode doc cleanup and tweaks. p4raw-id: //depot/perl@9768 --- diff --git a/ext/Encode/Encode.pm b/ext/Encode/Encode.pm index aca4577..fe235f1 100644 --- a/ext/Encode/Encode.pm +++ b/ext/Encode/Encode.pm @@ -358,15 +358,15 @@ Encode - character encodings =head1 DESCRIPTION -The C module provides the interfaces between perl's strings -and the rest of the system. Perl strings are sequences of B. +The C module provides the interfaces between Perl's strings +and the rest of the system. Perl strings are sequences of B. The repertoire of characters that Perl can represent is at least that -defined by the Unicode Consortium. On most platforms the ordinal values -of the characters (as returned by C) is the "Unicode codepoint" for -the character (the exceptions are those platforms where the legacy -encoding is some variant of EBCDIC rather than a super-set of ASCII -- see L). +defined by the Unicode Consortium. On most platforms the ordinal +values of the characters (as returned by C) is the "Unicode +codepoint" for the character (the exceptions are those platforms where +the legacy encoding is some variant of EBCDIC rather than a super-set +of ASCII - see L). Traditionaly computer data has been moved around in 8-bit chunks often called "bytes". These chunks are also known as "octets" in @@ -375,9 +375,9 @@ many types - not only strings of characters representing human or computer languages but also "binary" data being the machines representation of numbers, pixels in an image - or just about anything. -When perl is processing "binary data" the programmer wants perl to process -"sequences of bytes". This is not a problem for perl - as a byte has 256 -possible values it easily fits in perl's much larger "logical character". +When Perl is processing "binary data" the programmer wants Perl to process +"sequences of bytes". This is not a problem for Perl - as a byte has 256 +possible values it easily fits in Perl's much larger "logical character". =head2 TERMINOLOGY @@ -386,17 +386,17 @@ possible values it easily fits in perl's much larger "logical character". =item * I: a character in the range 0..(2**32-1) (or more). -(What perl's strings are made of.) +(What Perl's strings are made of.) =item * I: a character in the range 0..255 -(A special case of a perl character.) +(A special case of a Perl character.) =item * I: 8 bits of data, with ordinal values 0..255 -(Term for bytes passed to or from a non-perl context, e.g. disk file.) +(Term for bytes passed to or from a non-Perl context, e.g. disk file.) =back @@ -426,7 +426,7 @@ Each character is a single octet so may have a repertoire of up to =item * Fixed length 16-bit encodings Each character is two octets so may have a repertoire of up to -65,536 characters. Unicode's UCS-2 is an example. Also used for +65 536 characters. Unicode's UCS-2 is an example. Also used for encodings for East Asian languages. =item * Fixed length 32-bit encodings. @@ -456,8 +456,8 @@ of the above types) until another escape sequence switches to a different "embedded" encoding. These schemes are very flexible and can handle mixed languages but are -very complex to process (and have state). -No escape encodings are implemented for perl yet. +very complex to process (and have state). No escape encodings are +implemented for Perl yet. =back @@ -469,8 +469,8 @@ Encodings can be specified to the API described below in two ways: =item 1. By name -Encoding names are strings with characters taken from a restricted repertoire. -See L. +Encoding names are strings with characters taken from a restricted +repertoire. See L. =item 2. As an object @@ -481,9 +481,9 @@ Encoding objects are returned by C. =head2 Encoding Names Encoding names are case insensitive. White space in names is ignored. -In addition an encoding may have aliases. Each encoding has one "canonical" name. -The "canonical" name is chosen from the names of the encoding by picking -the first in the following sequence: +In addition an encoding may have aliases. Each encoding has one +"canonical" name. The "canonical" name is chosen from the names of +the encoding by picking the first in the following sequence: =over 4 @@ -509,33 +509,41 @@ once an operation is in progress. $bytes = encode(ENCODING, $string[, CHECK]) -Encodes string from perl's internal form into I and returns a -sequence of octets. -See L. +Encodes string from Perl's internal form into I and returns +a sequence of octets. For CHECK see L. =item * $string = decode(ENCODING, $bytes[, CHECK]) -Decode sequence of octets assumed to be in I into perls internal -form and returns the resuting string. -See L. +Decode sequence of octets assumed to be in I into Perl's +internal form and returns the resulting string. For CHECK see +L. + +=item * + + from_to($string, FROM_ENCODING, TO_ENCODING[, CHECK]) + +Convert the data between two encodings. How did the data in $string +originally get to be in FROM_ENCODING? Either using encode() or +through PerlIO: See L. For CHECK see +L. =back =head2 Handling Malformed Data If CHECK is not set, C is returned. If the data is supposed to -be UTF-8, an optional lexical warning (category utf8) is given. -If CHECK is true but not a code reference, dies. +be UTF-8, an optional lexical warning (category utf8) is given. If +CHECK is true but not a code reference, dies. -It would desirable to have a way to indicate that transform should use the -encodings "replacement character" - no such mechanism is defined yet. +It would desirable to have a way to indicate that transform should use +the encodings "replacement character" - no such mechanism is defined yet. It is also planned to allow I to be a code reference. -This is not yet implemented as there are design issues with what its arguments -should be and how it returns its results. +This is not yet implemented as there are design issues with what its +arguments should be and how it returns its results. =over 4 @@ -556,11 +564,9 @@ the fixup routine very little context. =item Scheme 2 -Passed original string, and an index into it of the problem area, -and output string so far. -Appends what it will to output string and returns new index into -original string. -e.g. +Passed original string, and an index into it of the problem area, and +output string so far. Appends what it will to output string and +returns new index into original string. For example: sub fixup { # my ($s,$i,$d) = @_; @@ -569,9 +575,9 @@ e.g. return $_[1]+1; } -This scheme gives maximal control to the fixup routine but is more complicated -to code, and may need internals of Encode to be tweaked to keep original -string intact. +This scheme gives maximal control to the fixup routine but is more +complicated to code, and may need internals of Encode to be tweaked to +keep original string intact. =item Other Schemes @@ -586,11 +592,11 @@ Index into the string could be pos($str) allowing s/\G...//. =head2 UTF-8 / utf8 The Unicode consortium defines the UTF-8 standard as a way of encoding -the entire Unicode repertiore as sequences of octets. This encoding -is expected to become very widespread. Perl can use this form internaly -to represent strings, so conversions to and from this form are particularly -efficient (as octets in memory do not have to change, just the meta-data -that tells perl how to treat them). +the entire Unicode repertiore as sequences of octets. This encoding is +expected to become very widespread. Perl can use this form internaly +to represent strings, so conversions to and from this form are +particularly efficient (as octets in memory do not have to change, +just the meta-data that tells Perl how to treat them). =over 4 @@ -598,7 +604,7 @@ that tells perl how to treat them). $bytes = encode_utf8($string); -The characters that comprise string are encoded in perl's superset of UTF-8 +The characters that comprise string are encoded in Perl's superset of UTF-8 and the resulting octets returned as a sequence of bytes. All possible characters have a UTF-8 representation so this function cannot fail. @@ -606,25 +612,27 @@ characters have a UTF-8 representation so this function cannot fail. $string = decode_utf8($bytes [,CHECK]); -The sequence of octets represented by $bytes is decoded from UTF-8 into -a sequence of logical characters. Not all sequences of octets form valid -UTF-8 encodings, so it is possible for this call to fail. -See L. +The sequence of octets represented by $bytes is decoded from UTF-8 +into a sequence of logical characters. Not all sequences of octets +form valid UTF-8 encodings, so it is possible for this call to fail. +For CHECK see L. =back =head2 Other Encodings of Unicode -UTF-16 is similar to UCS-2, 16 bit or 2-byte chunks. -UCS-2 can only represent 0..0xFFFF, while UTF-16 has a "surogate pair" -scheme which allows it to cover the whole Unicode range. +UTF-16 is similar to UCS-2, 16 bit or 2-byte chunks. UCS-2 can only +represent 0..0xFFFF, while UTF-16 has a "surrogate pair" scheme which +allows it to cover the whole Unicode range. Encode implements big-endian UCS-2 aliased to "iso-10646-1" as that -happens to be the name used by that representation when used with X11 fonts. +happens to be the name used by that representation when used with X11 +fonts. UTF-32 or UCS-4 is 32-bit or 4-byte chunks. Perl's logical characters can be considered as being in this form without encoding. An encoding -to transfer strings in this form (e.g. to write them to a file) would need to +to transfer strings in this form (e.g. to write them to a file) would +need to pack('L',map(chr($_),split(//,$string))); # native or @@ -636,8 +644,8 @@ depending on the endian required. No UTF-32 encodings are implemented yet. -Both UCS-2 and UCS-4 style encodings can have "byte order marks" by representing -the code point 0xFFFE as the very first thing in a file. +Both UCS-2 and UCS-4 style encodings can have "byte order marks" by +representing the code point 0xFFFE as the very first thing in a file. =head2 Listing available encodings @@ -651,8 +659,8 @@ Returns a list of the canonical names of the available encodings. use Encode qw(define_alias); define_alias( newName => ENCODING); -Allows newName to be used as am alias for ENCODING. ENCODING may be either the -name of an encoding or and encoding object (as above). +Allows newName to be used as am alias for ENCODING. ENCODING may be +either the name of an encoding or and encoding object (as above). Currently I can be specified in the following ways: @@ -664,19 +672,19 @@ Currently I can be specified in the following ways: define_alias( qr/^iso8859-(\d+)$/i => '"iso-8859-$1"' ); -In this case if I is not a reference it is C-ed to allow -C<$1> etc. to be subsituted. -The example is one way to names as used in X11 font names to alias the MIME names for the -iso-8859-* family. +In this case if I is not a reference it is C-ed to +allow C<$1> etc. to be subsituted. The example is one way to names as +used in X11 font names to alias the MIME names for the iso-8859-* +family. =item As a code reference, e.g.: define_alias( sub { return /^iso8859-(\d+)$/i ? "iso-8859-$1" : undef } , ''); In this case C<$_> will be set to the name that is being looked up and -I is passed to the sub as its first argument. -The example is another way to names as used in X11 font names to alias the MIME names for -the iso-8859-* family. +I is passed to the sub as its first argument. The example +is another way to names as used in X11 font names to alias the MIME +names for the iso-8859-* family. =back @@ -685,16 +693,16 @@ the iso-8859-* family. use Encode qw(define_alias); define_encoding( $object, 'canonicalName' [,alias...]); -Causes I to be associated with I<$object>. -The object should provide the interface described in L below. -If more than two arguments are provided then additional arguments are taken -as aliases for I<$object> as for C. +Causes I to be associated with I<$object>. The object +should provide the interface described in L +below. If more than two arguments are provided then additional +arguments are taken as aliases for I<$object> as for C. =head1 Encoding and IO It is very common to want to do encoding transformations when reading or writing files, network connections, pipes etc. -If perl is configured to use the new 'perlio' IO system then +If Perl is configured to use the new 'perlio' IO system then C provides a "layer" (See L) which can transform data as it is read or written. @@ -712,20 +720,46 @@ for a lexical scope with the C pragma. See L. Once a handle is open is layers can be altered using C. -Without any such configuration, or if perl itself is built using +Without any such configuration, or if Perl itself is built using system's own IO, then write operations assume that file handle accepts only I and will C if a character larger than 255 is written to the handle. When reading, each octet from the handle becomes a byte-in-a-character. Note that this default is the same -behaviour as bytes-only languages (including perl before v5.6) would have, -and is sufficient to handle native 8-bit encodings e.g. iso-8859-1, -EBCDIC etc. and any legacy mechanisms for handling other encodings -and binary data. +behaviour as bytes-only languages (including Perl before v5.6) would +have, and is sufficient to handle native 8-bit encodings +e.g. iso-8859-1, EBCDIC etc. and any legacy mechanisms for handling +other encodings and binary data. + +In other cases it is the programs responsibility to transform +characters into bytes using the API above before doing writes, and to +transform the bytes read from a handle into characters before doing +"character operations" (e.g. C, C, ...). + +=head1 Encode and PerlIO + +The PerlIO layer (new since Perl 5.7) can be used to automatically +convert the data being read in or written out to be converted from +some encoding into Perl's internal encoding or from Perl's internal +encoding into some other encoding. + +Examples: -In other cases it is the programs responsibility -to transform characters into bytes using the API above before -doing writes, and to transform the bytes read from a handle into characters -before doing "character operations" (e.g. C, C, ...). + open(my $f, "<:encoding(cp1252)") + + open(my $g, ">:encoding(iso-8859-1)") + +You can also use PerlIO to convert larger amounts of data you don't +want to bring into memory. For example to convert between ISO 8859-1 +(Latin 1) and UTF-8 (or UTF-EBCDIC in EBCDIC machines): + + open(F, "<:encoding(iso-8859-1)", "data.txt") or die $!; + open(G, ">:utf8", "data.utf") or die $!; + while () { print G } + + # Could do "print G " but that would pull + # the whole file into memory just to write it out again. + +See L for more information. =head1 Encoding How to ... @@ -739,30 +773,30 @@ To do: =item * UTF-8 strings in binary data. -=item * perl/Encode wrappers on non-Unicode XS modules. +=item * Perl/Encode wrappers on non-Unicode XS modules. =back =head1 Messing with Perl's Internals -The following API uses parts of perl's internals in the current implementation. -As such they are efficient, but may change. +The following API uses parts of Perl's internals in the current +implementation. As such they are efficient, but may change. =over 4 =item * is_utf8(STRING [, CHECK]) [INTERNAL] Test whether the UTF-8 flag is turned on in the STRING. -If CHECK is true, also checks the data in STRING for being -well-formed UTF-8. Returns true if successful, false otherwise. +If CHECK is true, also checks the data in STRING for being well-formed +UTF-8. Returns true if successful, false otherwise. =item * valid_utf8(STRING) -[INTERNAL] Test whether STRING is in a consistent state. -Will return true if string is held as bytes, or is well-formed UTF-8 -and has the UTF-8 flag on. -Main reason for this routine is to allow perl's testsuite to check -that operations have left strings in a consistent state. +[INTERNAL] Test whether STRING is in a consistent state. Will return +true if string is held as bytes, or is well-formed UTF-8 and has the +UTF-8 flag on. Main reason for this routine is to allow Perl's +testsuite to check that operations have left strings in a consistent +state. =item * @@ -795,10 +829,11 @@ The values of the hash can currently be either strings or objects. The string form may go away in the future. The string form occurs when C has scanned C<@INC> for loadable encodings but has not actually loaded the encoding in question. This is because the -current "loading" process is all perl and a bit slow. +current "loading" process is all Perl and a bit slow. -Once an encoding is loaded then value of the hash is object which implements -the encoding. The object should provide the following interface: +Once an encoding is loaded then value of the hash is object which +implements the encoding. The object should provide the following +interface: =over 4 @@ -808,82 +843,90 @@ Should return the string representing the canonical name of the encoding. =item -Enew_sequence -This is a placeholder for encodings with state. It should return an object -which implements this interface, all current implementations return the -original object. +This is a placeholder for encodings with state. It should return an +object which implements this interface, all current implementations +return the original object. =item -Eencode($string,$check) -Should return the octet sequence representing I<$string>. If I<$check> is true -it should modify I<$string> in place to remove the converted part (i.e. -the whole string unless there is an error). -If an error occurs it should return the octet sequence for the -fragment of string that has been converted, and modify $string in-place -to remove the converted part leaving it starting with the problem fragment. +Should return the octet sequence representing I<$string>. If I<$check> +is true it should modify I<$string> in place to remove the converted +part (i.e. the whole string unless there is an error). If an error +occurs it should return the octet sequence for the fragment of string +that has been converted, and modify $string in-place to remove the +converted part leaving it starting with the problem fragment. -If check is is false then C should make a "best effort" to convert -the string - for example by using a replacement character. +If check is is false then C should make a "best effort" to +convert the string - for example by using a replacement character. =item -Edecode($octets,$check) -Should return the string that I<$octets> represents. If I<$check> is true -it should modify I<$octets> in place to remove the converted part (i.e. -the whole sequence unless there is an error). -If an error occurs it should return the fragment of string -that has been converted, and modify $octets in-place to remove the converted part +Should return the string that I<$octets> represents. If I<$check> is +true it should modify I<$octets> in place to remove the converted part +(i.e. the whole sequence unless there is an error). If an error +occurs it should return the fragment of string that has been +converted, and modify $octets in-place to remove the converted part leaving it starting with the problem fragment. -If check is is false then C should make a "best effort" to convert -the string - for example by using Unicode's "\x{FFFD}" as a replacement character. +If check is is false then C should make a "best effort" to +convert the string - for example by using Unicode's "\x{FFFD}" as a +replacement character. =back -It should be noted that the check behaviour is different from the outer -public API. The logic is that the "unchecked" case is useful when -encoding is part of a stream which may be reporting errors (e.g. STDERR). -In such cases it is desirable to get everything through somehow without -causing additional errors which obscure the original one. Also the encoding -is best placed to know what the correct replacement character is, so if that -is the desired behaviour then letting low level code do it is the most efficient. - -In contrast if check is true, the scheme above allows the encoding to do as -much as it can and tell layer above how much that was. What is lacking -at present is a mechanism to report what went wrong. The most likely interface -will be an additional method call to the object, or perhaps -(to avoid forcing per-stream objects on otherwise stateless encodings) -and additional parameter. - -It is also highly desirable that encoding classes inherit from C -as a base class. This allows that class to define additional behaviour for -all encoding objects. For example built in Unicode, UCS-2 and UTF-8 classes -use : +It should be noted that the check behaviour is different from the +outer public API. The logic is that the "unchecked" case is useful +when encoding is part of a stream which may be reporting errors +(e.g. STDERR). In such cases it is desirable to get everything +through somehow without causing additional errors which obscure the +original one. Also the encoding is best placed to know what the +correct replacement character is, so if that is the desired behaviour +then letting low level code do it is the most efficient. + +In contrast if check is true, the scheme above allows the encoding to +do as much as it can and tell layer above how much that was. What is +lacking at present is a mechanism to report what went wrong. The most +likely interface will be an additional method call to the object, or +perhaps (to avoid forcing per-stream objects on otherwise stateless +encodings) and additional parameter. + +It is also highly desirable that encoding classes inherit from +C as a base class. This allows that class to define +additional behaviour for all encoding objects. For example built in +Unicode, UCS-2 and UTF-8 classes use : package Encode::MyEncoding; use base qw(Encode::Encoding); __PACKAGE__->Define(qw(myCanonical myAlias)); -To create an object with bless {Name => ...},$class, and call define_encoding. -They inherit their C method from C. +To create an object with bless {Name => ...},$class, and call +define_encoding. They inherit their C method from +C. =head2 Compiled Encodings -F provides a class C which provides the interface described -above. It calls a generic octet-sequence to octet-sequence "engine" that is -driven by tables (defined in F). The same engine is used for both -encode and decode. C's C forces perl's characters to their UTF-8 form -and then treats them as just another multibyte encoding. C's C transforms -the sequence and then turns the UTF-8-ness flag as that is the form that the tables -are defined to produce. For details of the engine see the comments in F. - -The tables are produced by the perl script F (the name needs to change so -we can eventually install it somewhere). F can currently read two formats: +F provides a class C which provides the +interface described above. It calls a generic octet-sequence to +octet-sequence "engine" that is driven by tables (defined in +F). The same engine is used for both encode and +decode. C's C forces Perl's characters to their +UTF-8 form and then treats them as just another multibyte +encoding. C's C transforms the sequence and then +turns the UTF-8-ness flag as that is the form that the tables are +defined to produce. For details of the engine see the comments in +F. + +The tables are produced by the Perl script F (the name needs +to change so we can eventually install it somewhere). F can +currently read two formats: =over 4 =item *.enc -This is a coined format used by Tcl. It is documented in Encode/EncodeFormat.pod. +This is a coined format used by Tcl. It is documented in +Encode/EncodeFormat.pod. =item *.ucm @@ -907,14 +950,14 @@ into F/F. =item *.xs -In theory this allows encodings to be stand-alone loadable perl extensions. -The process has not yet been tested. The plan is to use this approach -for large East Asian encodings. +In theory this allows encodings to be stand-alone loadable Perl +extensions. The process has not yet been tested. The plan is to use +this approach for large East Asian encodings. =back -The set of encodings built-in to F/F is determined by -F. The current set is as follows: +The set of encodings built-in to F/F is +determined by F. The current set is as follows: =over 4 @@ -924,23 +967,23 @@ That is all the common 8-bit "western" encodings. =item IBM-1047 and two other variants of EBCDIC. -These are the same variants that are supported by EBCDIC perl as "native" encodings. -They are included to prove "reversibility" of some constructs in EBCDIC perl. +These are the same variants that are supported by EBCDIC Perl as +"native" encodings. They are included to prove "reversibility" of +some constructs in EBCDIC Perl. =item symbol and dingbats as used by Tk on X11. -(The reason Encode got started was to support perl/Tk.) +(The reason Encode got started was to support Perl/Tk.) =back -That set is rather ad. hoc. and has been driven by the needs of the tests rather -than the needs of typical applications. It is likely to be rationalized. +That set is rather ad hoc and has been driven by the needs of the +tests rather than the needs of typical applications. It is likely +to be rationalized. =head1 SEE ALSO -L, L, L +L, L, L, L =cut - - diff --git a/ext/PerlIO/Scalar/Scalar.pm b/ext/PerlIO/Scalar/Scalar.pm index 2879407..e086032 100644 --- a/ext/PerlIO/Scalar/Scalar.pm +++ b/ext/PerlIO/Scalar/Scalar.pm @@ -18,8 +18,8 @@ PerlIO::Scalar - support module for in-memory IO. C only exists to use XSLoader to load C code that provides support for treating a scalar as an "in memory" file. -All normal file operations can be performed on the handle. The scalar is considered -a stream of bytes. Currently fileno($fh) returns C. +All normal file operations can be performed on the handle. The scalar +is considered a stream of bytes. Currently fileno($fh) returns C. =cut diff --git a/ext/PerlIO/Via/Via.pm b/ext/PerlIO/Via/Via.pm index f6a7a8f..c9dd01b 100644 --- a/ext/PerlIO/Via/Via.pm +++ b/ext/PerlIO/Via/Via.pm @@ -50,14 +50,13 @@ Not yet in use. =item $obj->FILENO($fh) -Returns a numeric value for Unix-like file descriptor. Return -1 -if there isn't one. -Optional -default is fileno($fh). +Returns a numeric value for Unix-like file descriptor. Return -1 if +there isn't one. Optional. Default is fileno($fh). =item $obj->READ($buffer,$len,$fh) Returns the number of octets placed in $buffer (must be less that $len). -Optional - default is to use FILL instead. +Optional. Default is to use FILL instead. =item $obj->WRITE($buffer,$fh) @@ -65,9 +64,9 @@ Returns the number of octets from buffer that have been sucessfully written. =item $obj->FILL($fh) -Should return a string to be placed in the buffer. -Optional. If not provided must provide READ or reject handles open for -reading in PUSHED. +Should return a string to be placed in the buffer. Optional. If not +provided must provide READ or reject handles open for reading in +PUSHED. =item $obj->CLOSE($fh) @@ -86,15 +85,14 @@ Optional. Default to be determined. =item $obj->UNREAD($buffer,$fh) -Returns the number of octets from buffer that have been sucessfully saved -to be returned on future FILL/READ calls. -Optional. Default is to push data into a temporary layer above this one. +Returns the number of octets from buffer that have been sucessfully +saved to be returned on future FILL/READ calls. Optional. Default is +to push data into a temporary layer above this one. =item $obj->FLUSH($fh) -Flush any buffered write data. -May possibly be called on readable handles too. -Should return 0 on success, -1 on error. +Flush any buffered write data. May possibly be called on readable +handles too. Should return 0 on success, -1 on error. =item $obj->SETLINEBUF($fh) @@ -111,8 +109,8 @@ to signal error (die?) is worked out. =item $obj->EOF($fh) -Optional. Returns end-of-file state. Default is function of return value of FILL -or READ. +Optional. Returns end-of-file state. Default is function of return +value of FILL or READ. =back diff --git a/lib/PerlIO.pm b/lib/PerlIO.pm index 04cd4cf..148a5a8 100644 --- a/lib/PerlIO.pm +++ b/lib/PerlIO.pm @@ -48,8 +48,8 @@ The perl code in PerlIO.pm then attempts to locate a layer by doing require PerlIO::foo; -Otherwise the C package is a place holder for additional PerLIO related -functions. +Otherwise the C package is a place holder for additional +PerlIO related functions. The following layers are currently defined: @@ -61,46 +61,58 @@ Low level layer which calls C, C and C etc. =item stdio -Layer which calls C, C and C/C etc. -Note that as this is "real" stdio it will ignore any layers beneath it and +Layer which calls C, C and C/C etc. Note +that as this is "real" stdio it will ignore any layers beneath it and got straight to the operating system via the C library as usual. =item perlio -This is a re-implementation of "stdio-like" buffering written as a PerlIO "layer". -As such it will call whatever layer is below it for its operations. +This is a re-implementation of "stdio-like" buffering written as a +PerlIO "layer". As such it will call whatever layer is below it for +its operations. =item crlf -A layer which does CRLF to "\n" translation distinguishing "text" and "binary" -files in the manner of MS-DOS and similar operating systems. +A layer which does CRLF to "\n" translation distinguishing "text" and +"binary" files in the manner of MS-DOS and similar operating systems. =item utf8 -Declares that the stream accepts perl's internal encoding of characters. -(Which really is UTF-8 on ASCII machines, but is UTF-EBCDIC on EBCDIC machines.) -This allows any character perl can represent to be read from or written to the -stream. The UTF-X encoding is chosen to render simple text parts (i.e. -non-accented letters, digits and common punctuation) human readable in the -encoded file. +Declares that the stream accepts perl's internal encoding of +characters. (Which really is UTF-8 on ASCII machines, but is +UTF-EBCDIC on EBCDIC machines.) This allows any character perl can +represent to be read from or written to the stream. The UTF-X encoding +is chosen to render simple text parts (i.e. non-accented letters, +digits and common punctuation) human readable in the encoded file. + +Here is how to write your native data out using UTF-8 (or UTF-EBCDIC) +and then read it back in. + + open(F, ">:utf8", "data.utf"); + print F $out; + close(F); + + open(F, "<:utf8", "data.utf"); + $in = ; + close(F); =item raw -A pseudo-layer which performs two functions (which is messy, but necessary to -maintain compatibility with non-PerLIO builds of perl and they way things -have been documented elsewhere). +A pseudo-layer which performs two functions (which is messy, but +necessary to maintain compatibility with non-PerlIO builds of perl +and their way things have been documented elsewhere). -Firstly it forces the file handle to be considered binary at that point -in the layer stack, +Firstly it forces the file handle to be considered binary at that +point in the layer stack, -Secondly in prevents the IO system seaching back before it in the layer specification. -Thus: +Secondly in prevents the IO system seaching back before it in the +layer specification. Thus: - open($fh,":raw:perlio"),...) + open($fh,":raw:perlio",...) -Forces the use of C layer even if the platform default, or C default -is something else (such as ":encoding(iso-8859-7)" ) which would interfere with -binary nature of the stream. +Forces the use of C layer even if the platform default, or +C default is something else (such as ":encoding(iso-8859-7)") +which would interfere with binary nature of the stream. =back @@ -111,10 +123,11 @@ for text files then the default layers are : unix crlf -(The low level "unix" layer may be replaced by a platform specific low level layer.) +(The low level "unix" layer may be replaced by a platform specific low +level layer.) -Otherwise if C found out how to do "fast" IO using system's stdio, then -the default layers are : +Otherwise if C found out how to do "fast" IO using system's +stdio, then the default layers are : unix stdio @@ -124,9 +137,10 @@ Otherwise the default layers are These defaults may change once perlio has been better tested and tuned. -The default can be overridden by setting the environment variable PERLIO -to a space separated list of layers (unix or platform low level layer is -always pushed first). +The default can be overridden by setting the environment variable +PERLIO to a space separated list of layers (unix or platform low level +layer is always pushed first). + This can be used to see the effect of/bugs in the various layers e.g. cd .../perl/t @@ -139,7 +153,7 @@ Nick Ing-Simmons Enick@ing-simmons.netE =head1 SEE ALSO -L, L, L, L +L, L, L, L =cut