Perl/VB question

[alex_read]

Hi all!

I've got a program which I use which can be added to/enhanced by writing Perl scripts. On the very first example code they give you it talks about setting up a variable/scalar wahtever you call this in Perl (as I'm new to this language) to hold this program's environment:

my $X = XPPcompo::new();

so I can call it's objects from this & modify them. I was wondering if this is like calling a createobject("word.application") call in vb to set up an environment/object reference & if this is the same, was wondering where I could find (maybe in the registry) the full name of the reference so I could use it in vb ( as calling createobject("XPPcompo") or createobject("XPPCompo.Application") etc doesn't work.

Thanks!

[CornedBee]

It is like that in concept, but very different in implementation. The VB CreateObject uses the Windows ActiveX/Automation/COM system to locate objects in the registry, locate their provider DLLs and create them.
Perl uses Perl modules, which is a feature of the Perl interpreter and thus works on all platforms the same. You have to tell the Perl interpreter that you're going to use a module by adding
use modulename
at the top of the file. This particular module might be an exception though as the interpreter seems to be controlled by the app and the module is essential. Which probably means that the app provides it automatically (somewhat like that references to the Word Object Library are automatically added to all Word macros).

[alex_read]

Makes much more sense now, thanks for that explanation - made it clearer for me!