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Revision 1.2 by root, Sun Oct 27 20:17:16 2013 UTC

1NAME
2 Types::Serialiser - simple data types for common serialisation formats
3
4SYNOPSIS
5DESCRIPTION
6 This module provides some extra datatypes that are used by common
7 serialisation formats such as JSON or CBOR. The idea is to have a
8 repository of simple/small constants and containers that can be shared
9 by different implementations so they become interoperable between each
10 other.
11
12SIMPLE SCALAR CONSTANTS
13 Simple scalar constants are values that are overloaded to act like
14 simple Perl values, but have (class) type to differentiate them from
15 normal Perl scalars. This is necessary because these have different
16 representations in the serialisation formats.
17
18 BOOLEANS (Types::Serialiser::Boolean class)
19 This type has only two instances, true and false. A natural
20 representation for these in Perl is 1 and 0, but serialisation formats
21 need to be able to differentiate between them and mere numbers.
22
23 $Types::Serialiser::true, Types::Serialiser::true
24 This value represents the "true" value. In most contexts is acts
25 like the number 1. It is up to you whether you use the variable form
26 ($Types::Serialiser::true) or the constant form
27 ("Types::Serialiser::true").
28
29 The constant is represented as a reference to a scalar containing 1
30 - implementations are allowed to directly test for this.
31
32 $Types::Serialiser::false, Types::Serialiser::false
33 This value represents the "false" value. In most contexts is acts
34 like the number 0. It is up to you whether you use the variable form
35 ($Types::Serialiser::false) or the constant form
36 ("Types::Serialiser::false").
37
38 The constant is represented as a reference to a scalar containing 0
39 - implementations are allowed to directly test for this.
40
41 $is_bool = Types::Serialiser::is_bool $value
42 Returns true iff the $value is either $Types::Serialiser::true or
43 $Types::Serialiser::false.
44
45 For example, you could differentiate between a perl true value and a
46 "Types::Serialiser::true" by using this:
47
48 $value && Types::Serialiser::is_bool $value
49
50 $is_true = Types::Serialiser::is_true $value
51 Returns true iff $value is $Types::Serialiser::true.
52
53 $is_false = Types::Serialiser::is_false $value
54 Returns false iff $value is $Types::Serialiser::false.
55
56 ERROR (Types::Serialiser::Error class)
57 This class has only a single instance, "error". It is used to signal an
58 encoding or decoding error. In CBOR for example, and object that
59 couldn't be encoded will be represented by a CBOR undefined value, which
60 is represented by the error value in Perl.
61
62 $Types::Serialiser::error, Types::Serialiser::error
63 This value represents the "error" value. Accessing values of this
64 type will throw an exception.
65
66 The constant is represented as a reference to a scalar containing
67 "undef" - implementations are allowed to directly test for this.
68
69 $is_error = Types::Serialiser::is_error $value
70 Returns false iff $value is $Types::Serialiser::error.
71
72NOTES FOR XS USERS
73 The recommended way to detect whether a scalar is one of these objects
74 is to check whether the stash is the "Types::Serialiser::Boolean" or
75 "Types::Serialiser::Error" stash, and then follow the scalar reference
76 to see if it's 1 (true), 0 (false) or "undef" (error).
77
78 While it is possible to use an isa test, directly comparing stash
79 pointers is faster and guaranteed to work.
80
81BUGS
82 The use of overload makes this module much heavier than it should be (on
83 my system, this module: 4kB RSS, overload: 260kB RSS).
84
85SEE ALSO
86 Currently, JSON::XS and CBOR::XS use these types.
87
88AUTHOR
89 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
90 http://home.schmorp.de/
91

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