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Making Perl Reusable with Modules
by Andy Sylvester | Pages: 1, 2, 3

Creating a Perl Package from a Program

With a working program, you can create a Perl package as a step toward being able to reuse code in a larger application. The initial program has two pieces of input data (the major generator and the minor generator). The single output is the list of numbers that make up the resultant. These three pieces of data could be combined in an object. The program could easily become a subroutine to generate the terms in the resultant. This could be a method in the class contained in the package. Creating a class implies adding a constructor method to create a new object. Finally, there should be some methods to get the major generator and minor generator from the object to use in generating the resultant (see the perlboot and perltoot tutorials for background on object-oriented programming in Perl).

From these requirements, the resulting package might be:

#!/usr/bin/perl
#*******************************************************
#
# Filename: result01a.pl
#
# Description:
#    This Perl script creates a class for a Schillinger resultant
#    based on two integers for the major generator and the
#    minor generator.
#
# Class Name: Resultant
#
# Synopsis:
#
# use Resultant;
#
# Class Methods:
#
#   $seq1 = Resultant ->new(5, 3)
#
#      Creates a new object with a major generator of 5 and
#      a minor generator of 3. These parameters need to be
#      initialized when a new object is created, as there
#      are no methods to set these elements within the object.
#
#   $seq1->generate()
#
#      Generates a resultant and saves it in the ResultList array
#
# Object Data Methods:
#
#   $major_generator = $seq1->get_major()
#
#      Returns the major generator
#
#   $minor_generator = $seq1->get_minor()
#
#      Returns the minor generator
#
#
#**************************************************************

{ package Resultant;
  use strict;
  sub new {
    my $class           = shift;
    my $major_generator = shift;
    my $minor_generator = shift;

    my $self = {Major => $major_generator,
                Minor => $minor_generator,
                ResultantList => []};

    bless $self, $class;
    return $self;
  }

  sub get_major {
    my $self = shift;
    return $self->{Major};
  }

  sub get_minor {
    my $self = shift;
    return $self->{Minor};
  }

  sub generate {
    my $self         = shift;
    my $total_counts = $self->get_major * $self->get_minor;
    my $i            = 0;
    my $major_mod;
    my $minor_mod;
    my @result;
    my $result_counter = 0;

   while ($i < $total_counts) {
       $i++;
       $result_counter++;
       $major_mod = $i % $self->get_major;
       $minor_mod = $i % $self->get_minor;

       if (($major_mod == 0) || ($minor_mod == 0)) {
          push(@result, $result_counter);
          $result_counter = 0;
       }
   }

   @{$self->{ResultList}} = @result;
  }
}

#
# Test code to check out class methods
#

# Counter declaration
my $j;

# Create new object and initialize major and minor generators
my $seq1 = Resultant->new(5, 3);

# Print major and minor generators
print "The major generator is ", $seq1->get_major(), "\n";
print "The minor generator is ", $seq1->get_minor(), "\n";

# Generate a resultant
$seq1->generate();

# Print the resultant
print "The resultant is ";
foreach $j (@{$seq1->{ResultList}}) {
  print "$j ";
}
print "\n";

Execute the file (perl result01a.pl):

The major generator is 5
The minor generator is 3
The resultant is 3 2 1 3 1 2 3

This output text shows the same resultant terms as produced by the first program.

Creating a Perl Module

From a package, you can create a Perl module to make the package fully reusable in an application. Also, you can modify our original test code into a series of module tests to show that the module works the same as the standalone package and the original program.

I like to use the Perl module Module::Starter to create a skeleton module for the package code. To start, install the Module::Starter module and its associated modules from CPAN, using the Perl Package Manager, or some other package manager. To see if you already have the Module::Starter module installed, type perldoc Module::Starter in a terminal window. If the man page does not appear, you probably do not have the module installed.

Select a working directory to create the module directory. This can be the same directory that you have been using to develop your Perl program. Type the following command (though with your own name and email address):

$ module-starter --module=Music::Resultant --author="John Doe" \
    --email=john@johndoe.com

Perl should respond with:

Created starter directories and files

In the working directory, you should see a folder or directory called Music-Resultant. Change your current directory to Music-Resultant, then type the commands:

$ perl Makefile.PL
$ make

These commands will create the full directory structure for the module. Now paste the text from the package into the module template at Music-Resultant/lib/Music/Resultant.pm. Open Resultant.pm in a text editor and paste the subroutines from the package after the lines:

=head1 FUNCTIONS

=head2 function1

=cut

When you paste the package source code, remove the opening brace from the package, so that the first lines appear as:

 package Resultant;
  sub new {
    use strict;
    my $class = shift;

and the last lines of the source appears without the the final closing brace as:

   @{$self->{ResultList}} = @result;
  }

After making the above changes, save Resultant.pm. This is all that you need to do to create a module for your own use. If you eventually release your module to the Perl community or upload it to CPAN, you should do some more work to prepare the module and its documentation (see the perlmod and perlmodlib documentation for more information).

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