NAME

bitflag - Simplify export of bitflag names

SYNOPSIS

package SomeModule;

use bitflag qw(V1 V2 ...);

Series of constants V1,V2,V3 ... now available with values 1,2,4,..

do  something with constants V1, V3|~V4 and the like ;
sub anyFunc
{
    $v = getmask @_;
    ...
}

package AnotherModule;

use SomeModule;
SomeModule::anyFunc(qw(V3 V5 V11 ...))

Inside SomeModule::anyFunc with assignment $v=getmask(@_) these arguments arrive as V3|V5|V11

DESCRIPTION

Core Features

use bitflag qw(V1 V2 ...) defines a series of constants which denote different bitflag in the calling module, say package SomeModule. The constants are used as ordinary names, usually making up boolean expressions by bitwise operation-combinations. If AnotherModule calls SomeModule and refers to the flagnames, export of the names would be demanded. Yet unlike in SomeModule the binary 'or' will be the only opreation needed to combine the flags. E.g., if alfa, beta, gamma, delta, fi are names for 1,2,4,8,16, a choice term beta|delta|fi could be used in AnotherModule. Pragma bitflag makes the export of the flagnames dispensable, as it represents the choice term as getmask(qw(beta delta fi)). getmask() converts a list of strings containing names of flags into the boolean union of those flags. Thus the export of a lot of symbols is reduced to the export of a sole subname, getmask(), which is defined in package bitflag and exported by default to SomeModule. Coupling of packages is diminished this way.

Special Features

Multiple uses of "bitflag" may occur in a package. use bitflag @thislist and use bitflag @thatlist, regardless whether adjacent or separated in code, do the same as use bitflag @thislist,@thatlist. However, a second statement could also determine values of a separate range. If, in contrast to above specifications, the first argument of use bitflag is a hash and not a string, it represents a collection of options that can

1. override the value of the starting flag -- apply option sm=>$m

2. allow deviation of the case of characters in arguments of getmask -- with option ic=>1.

One can write, e.g., use bitflag {sm=>128, ic=>1}...

Furthermore, use bitflag {sm=>$m}... can be abbreviated to use bitflag $m....

Multiple uses

By option sm=>$number one can define another name for a value already assigned by a prior use bitflag.

Furthermore use bitflag could be called from different packages in one application run. If so, the module loaded later shall continue counting where the earlier module stopped, i.e. if ModuleA::LASTFLAG is 256, calling use bitflag FIRSTFLAG, ... in ModuleB makes ModuleB::FIRSTFLAG being 512. If ModuleB use other names independently to ModuleA it makes sense to restart with value 1 by using {sm=>1} as first parameter.

AUTHOR

Josef Schönbrunner <j.schoenbrunner@schule.at>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2008 by Josef Schönbrunner This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.7 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.