my %class= { MSWin32 => "FTP::Session::Win32", HPUX => "FTP::Session::HPUX", } my %constructor= { MSWin32 => FTP::Session::Win32->can("new"), HPUX => FTP::Session::HPUX->can( "new" ), } my $ctor= $constructor{$^O}; die "No constructor for $^O" if ! $ctor; my $session= $ctor->( $class{$^O}, ... ); # Old Perl requires: $session= &$ctor( $class{$^O}, ... );