Re: BEGIN block and failure to initialize constants

[kennethk]

So, as described in use, use mylib; is exactly equivalent to BEGIN { require Module; Module->import( LIST ); }. When you don't define your value in a BEGIN block, the implicit BEGIN in use constant beats it in the foot race, since (as documented in BEGIN, UNITCHECK, CHECK, INIT and END)

A BEGIN code block is executed as soon as possible, that is, the moment it is completely defined, even before the rest of the containing file (or string) is parsed. You may have multiple BEGIN blocks within a file (or eval'ed string); they will execute in order of definition.

You can even have nested BEGIN blocks, where order of operations gets applied recursively. In fact, since you will use mylib; to get to your module, that's exactly what happens.

[temporal]

Oh man, I was overthinking this problem way too much. For some reason I thought constants were a special case and forgot entirely about use's equivalence to a BEGIN block as you just described.

Thanks for dusting that knowledge off for me kennethk.

Also, cool note about nesting those blocks, TIL. =)