Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!isi.edu!venera.isi.edu!jas
From: jas@ISI.EDU (Jeff Sullivan)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Learning perl -- generlized file loading w/var assignment
Message-ID: <16785@venera.isi.edu>
Date: 15 Feb 91 19:04:40 GMT
Sender: news@isi.edu
Distribution: comp
Organization: USC-ISI
Lines: 70


I'm just learning perl, and in doing so, am trying to put together the
beginnings of a project that will be a kind of parser/server.

To that end, I have created a set of files which each contain a list
of commands or terms which I want the user to be able to abbreviate.
I then want to be able to read in this list of files and assign each
file its own associative array filled out by abbrev.pl.  However, my
test doesn't seem to work.

Here's a sample of the code:

#!/usr/bin/perl

# Load abbreviation package
require "abbrev.pl";

#Set abbreviation eval line (run for each abbr file.).
#$filestub will be set to the root of the file name, which is always
#of the form <file-contents>-LIST.
$eval_line = "%$filestub = ();\n&abbrev(*$filestub, @tmp);\n";

#Alternative method to set eval_line.
#$eval_line = <<'End_of_Eval_Line';
#%$filestub = ();
#&abbrev(*$filestub, @tmp);
#End_of_Eval_Line


#Load abbreviation files.

foreach $filename ("ATTR-LIST", "HELP-LIST", "TYPE-LIST", "CMD-LIST") {

    # Open the file for input
    open(TMP, "$filename") || die "Can't load $filename: $!";

    $filename =~ /(\w+)-LIST/;
    $filestub = $1;

    #Slurp in the whole file, one line per element of @tmp
    @tmp = <TMP>;

    # close the file
    close TMP;

    #Initialize the associative array.
    %abbr = ();

    #Fill in the array of abbreviations.
    eval $eval_line;
}

while (<>) {
    chop;
    $long = $cmd{$_};
    print "$long\n" if length($long);
}


The last bit is pulled vrom the example using abbrev.pl.  The $cmd{}
array (should) be created by the eval_line when $filename is
"CMD-LIST" and $filestub is "CMD".  Right?

jas

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey A. Sullivan		| Senior Systems Programmer
jas@venera.isi.edu		| Information Sciences Institute
jas@isi.edu                    	| University of Southern California