Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!VAX1.CC.UAKRON.EDU!math-cs.kent.edu!news
From: gorpong@math-cs.kent.edu (Gordon C. Galligher)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Perl 3.0 PL28 package and subroutine PROBLEMS (ie: I NEED HELP)
Keywords: Package, Subroutine
Message-ID: <1990Sep4.190721.8505@math-cs.kent.edu>
Date: 4 Sep 90 19:07:21 GMT
Organization: Kent State University
Lines: 47

I am attempting to write a function:  alarm() in Perl using Perl 3.0 PL28.
I have done the following:

package ALARM;

	...comment stuff...

($version, $patchlevel) ..... (Make sure I'm at least perl 3 pl9 for pipe())

sub main'alarm
{
	....the body of the function....
}

In my test file (talarm.pl), I do the following:

require "alarm.pl";

print "blah blah blah";
$time = &alarm(10);

The perl execution dies with:
	"Undefined subroutine 'alarm' called at ./talarm.pl line 9."

OK, what am I doing wrong?  I thought that preceding the alarm subroutine with
the main', I would be putting it into the main's dataspace/stack.  This is
obviously not occuring.  Perl -d is absolutely no help, even when I 'require'
some functions which do not change packages, it does not know about them 
with the 'S' command.

I did not want to post the entire file, because it is over 140 lines, and 
that is really out of the scope of my question.  

The require does not fail, but the subroutine also does not show up in the 
main package.  Before you suggest, I tried:  $val = &ALARM'alarm(10); and
got the same error, which leads me to believe that something is seriously
wrong, with the way I am doing it, or perl.  (Of course, it could not be
ANYTHING that I am doing, could it :-)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  If it would not be too much
trouble, I would appreciate the answers posted, so others can benefit from 
this wierdness.  Thank you very much.

		-- Gordon.

P.S.  For the person asking about a timeout for <STDIN>, the sooner I get help
	on this problem, the sooner you can have your timeout (hint, hint).