NAME

English::Reference - use words to dereference things

SYNOPSIS

use English::Reference;
or
use English::Reference qw(deref);
...
print SCALAR \"Hello World";

DESCRIPTION

Provides the ability to use:

ARRAY  $arrayref
CODE   $coderef
GLOB   $globref
HASH   $hashref
SCALAR $scalaref

en lieu of

@$arrayref
&$coderef
*$globref
%$hashref
$$scalaref

or

@{$arrayref}
&{$coderef}
*{$globref}
%{$hashref}
${$scalaref}

As an added bonus, there is a function deref; not exported by default; which you can use to dereference a reference of any type.

CAVEATS

You cannot do ARRAY{$arrayref} etc. This is not too bad seeing as the whole point of this module is to reduce the amount of punctuation you use.

Some constructs will not have the desired results.

print SCALAR $scalarref, "\n";

for example. You're actually calling a subroutine named SCALAR without parentheses. This subroutune eats everything following it, and your newline ends up in never never land.

AUTHORS

Jerrad Pierce <belg4mit@mit.edu, the_lorax@usa.net> Jeff Pinyan <japhy@pobox.com> Casey R. Tweten <crt@kiski.net>

SEE ALSO

English(3).