Re: how NOT to import exported subs/variables from a module?

[Sandy]

From the docs...

perldoc -f use
...
             If you do not want to call the package's "import"
             method (for instance, to stop your namespace from
             being altered), explicitly supply the empty list:

                 use Module ();

This should do it.

Sandy

[jfroebe]

DOH!

You know, I could swear that was just added to my perldoc in the last 10 seconds by elves or something... Thanks!! :)

[planetscape]

IMHO, that sounds more like something the wee folk would do... ;-)

[xdg]

The next two lines of that documentation are:

That is exactly equivalent to

     BEGIN { require Module }

So unless you need the compile time action from BEGIN, plain require works also. It's only one extra character over use with an empty list and I find it stands out better visually as being a module load without import side-effects.

[adrianh]

So unless you need the compile time action from BEGIN, plain require works also. It's only one extra character over use with an empty list and I find it stands out better visually as being a module load without import side-effects.

That's interesting. I would far prefer use Module () since it explicitly says to me "I am deliberately not importing anything' where require Module might be saying any of:

• I don't want to run at compile time
• I don't want to run import() yet
• I don't want to run import() at all (for whatever reason)
• I don't want to run import() because I don't want to add any subs/variables to my namespace

[xdg]

That's interesting. I would far prefer use Module () since it explicitly says to me "I am deliberately not importing anything' where require Module might be saying any of:

Interesting counter-point. It sounds like a difference either in how we read code or in how we prefer to optimize our code for readability. (Those are similar, but subtly different.)

I would tend to not read anything into require other than its literal meaning and reserve judgement about intent until I see it used later (e.g. import or a function/method call). I would tend to write as I described above to stand out better -- or perhaps write "use Module qw()" for a similarly distinctive effect.