NAME
Perl::SAX - Generate SAX events for perl source code (incomplete)
DESCRIPTION
With the completion of a relatively usful perl parser, in the form of PPI, there has been renewed interest in parsing perl source code and "Doing Stuff" with it.
It was felt (actually, it was demanded) that there should be some sort of event system that could go through a chunk of perl source code and emit events that would be handled by a variety of methods.
Rather than invent my own, it was much easier to hijack SAX for this purpose.
(The ability to write Acme::PerlML had NOTHING to do with it. I swear!)
Perl::SAX is the result of this need. Starting with a single object of any type descended from PPI::Node, Perl::Sax will generate a stream of SAX events.
For the sake of compatibility with SAX as a whole, and in the spirit of not dictating the default behaviour based on any one use of this event stream, the stream of events will be such that it can be passed to XML::SAX::Writer and a "PerlML" file will be spat out.
This provides the highest level of details, and allows for a variety of different potential uses, relating to both the actual and lexical content inside of perl source code.
Perl::SAX is only a SAX Driver
Please note that Perl::SAX is only a SAX Driver only. It cannot be used as a SAX Filter or some other form of SAX Handler, and will die fatally if you try, as soon as it recieves a start_document event.
Current State of Completion
Currently, this incomplete version is in CPAN largely as a placeholder. You can create an object, you just can't do anything with it.
But I would expect it to be fleshed out a bit more during the next serious chunk of time I get to work on PPI.
METHODS
new [ Handler => $Handler | Output => $WriterConsumer ]
The new constructor creates a new Perl SAX Driver instance.
If passed no arguments, it creates a new default XML::SAX::Writer object, which by default will write the resulting PerlML file to STDOUT.
If passed an Output = $Consumer> argument, this value will be passed along to the XML::SAX::Writer constructor. Any value that is legal for the Output parameter to XML::SAX::Writer is also legal here.
If passed a Handler = $Handler> argument, $Handler will be used as the SAX Handler directly. Any value provided via Output in this case will be ignored.
Returns a new Perl::SAX object, or undef if you pass an illegal Output value, and the XML::SAX::Writer cannot be created.
TO DO
Design and create the PerlML Schema
Complete the parse method
Write a bunch of tests
SUPPORT
Because the development of the PerlML Schema (and thus this module) has not been completed yet, please do not report bugs other than those that are installation-related.
Bugs should be reported via the CPAN bug tracker at
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Perl%3A%3ASAX
For other issues, contact the author.
AUTHOR
Adam Kennedy (Maintainer), http://ali.as/, cpan@ali.as
COPYRIGHT
Thank you to Phase N (http://phase-n.com/) for permitting the Open Sourcing and release of this distribution.
Copyright (c) 2004 Adam Kennedy. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.