Zoidberg::Utils::Output(3)

NAME
Zoidberg::Utils::Output - Zoidberg output routines

SYNOPSIS
        use Zoidberg::Utils qw/:output/;

        # use this instead of perlfunc print
        output "get some string outputted";
        output { string => 'or some data struct dumped' };

DESCRIPTION
This module provides some routines used by various Zoidberg modules to output data.

Although when working within the Zoidberg framework this module should be used through the Zoidberg::Utils interface, it also can be used on it's own.

EXPORT
By default all of the below except "typed_output".

METHODS

"output(@_)"
    Output a list of possibly mixed data structs as nice as possible.

    A reference to an array of plain scalars may be outputted as a multicolumn list, more complex data will be dumped using Data::Dumper.

"message(@_)"
    Like "output()" but tags data as a message, in non-interactive mode these may not be printed at all.

"debug(@_)"
    Like "output()" tags the data as debug output, will only be printed when in debug mode. Debug ouput will be printed to STDERR if printed at all.

"complain(@_)"
    Like "output" but intended for error messages, data will be printed to STDERR. Has some glue for error objects created by Zoidberg::Utils::Error. Prints $@ when no argument is given.

"typed_output($type, @_)"
    Method that can be used to define output types that don't fit in the above group. $type must be a plain string that is used as output 'tag'.

"output_is_captured($type, @_)"
    Method that returns a boolean that tells whether output is captured or not. This can be used to make terminal output different from data struct output.

AUTHOR
Jaap Karssenberg || Pardus [Larus] <pardus@cpan.org>

Copyright (c) 2003 Jaap G Karssenberg. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO
Zoidberg, Zoidberg::Utils