For starters, you use the Exporter module from the module you want to *drumroll* export from. So, myVars, in your case. Then you need to subclass your exporting module to be a subclass of Exporter - that's what the @ISA line is doing in the SYNOPSIS of the manual page. Finally, you need to tell Exporter what you want to export, that's where you use @EXPORT, @EXPORT_OK and/or %EXPORT_TAGS.

Please study the manual pages (for instance perlmod), a book or a tutorial about writing modules.

Abigail

Thanks for your feedback. I read through and tried to understand as much as I could about Exporter (which I obviously didn't understand as well as I thought I did). One of my learning traits is that I learn by doing, not by reading. So, it's sometimes difficult to understand a lot of the PODs I read (especially since programming is relatively new to me). I usually try to read them over and over again, and several I have printed out so I can flip back and forth (i.e., CGI.pm, HTML::Template).

I am not complaining, whining, or having a pity party of one, mind you. Since I learn by doing and not by reading (and I'm not a big fan of cargo-cult programming because that will invariably bite me in the arse when I have to go back and maintain this stuff), I sometimes get things confused. I like to try to figure out the basics of something as best I can by reading, then tinker with it to gain a better, fuller understanding of what it is I'm playing with. Of course, this means I'll probably post more questions that clearly indicate I have something bass-ackwards, and need to be flipped around or upside down so they're correct.

Your explanation of what the Exporter module does, combined with what I read in the POD, makes it clearer to me now how Exporter works. Most PODS (rightly) assume a better, more well-rounded programming knowledge than I currently possess, and I look forward to feeling like a movie star when all those lightbulbs inevitably go off and I begin to pull it all together in my brain.

:-D

Thanks again for taking the time to flip me to the correct position!

Lori (strapping herself more tightly into her harness for further flipping)

To get you started, perhaps something like this would help (untested):

#MyVars.pm
package MyVars;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Exporter ();
our @ISA = 'Exporter';
our ($one,$two,$three,$four,$five);
our @EXPORT = qw/$one $two $three $four $five call_variables/;

sub call_variables {
  #pick up a string I've passed from previous program via 'spec_vars'
  my $spec_vars = param('spec_vars');
  ($one,$two,$three,$four,$five) = split /~/, $spec_vars;
  return; # nothing; this sub only sets the variables
}
1;


# in your script
use MyVars; # declares variables (actually just aliases them to the on
+es in the MyVars package)

# to start with, they will be undefined (or at least should be treated
+ as such)
call_variables();
# now you can say
$fred = $one . $two;
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