Compilation failed, Vendor::Amazon, Vendor::BarnesNoble

luisfagundes has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks!
I'm right on a deadline and everything was working perfect. Then I made some comments, put use strict in all modules and one 'my' that was missing to compile with strict and when trying to compile, I got this:

Unknown error
Compilation failed in require at BookRetriever.pm line 8.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at BookRetriever.pm line 8.
Compilation failed in require at compare_prices.pl line 4.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at compare_prices.pl line 4.

These are the first lines of BookRetriever:

package BookRetriever;
####################################################
# This class uses Vendor plugins to retrieve book HTML pages from vend
+or websites,
# parse them, insert it into db and return data from db

use DBI;
use LWP::UserAgent;
use Vendor::Amazon; # LINE 8
use Vendor::BarnesNoble;

# Here is configuration for everything
our %CONFIG = ('db_host' => 'localhost',
           'db_name' => 'books',
           'db_user' => 'user',
           'db_pass' => 'pass',
           'html_retrieve_timeout' => 30,
           'vendors' => [ qw(Amazon BarnesNoble) ] 
        );
[download]

error line is this use Vendor::Amazon, and error happens Vendor::BarnesNobles if I exchange them. In fact, I made one change right there. It was working, them I erased these two lines, put a BEGIN around our %CONFIG and inside the BEGIN I looped through @{$CONFIG{'vendors'}} and eval "use Vendor::$vendor;";
I kept writing comments all around before testing then noticed the eval didn't work, when I got back the old way it didn't compile
Any ideas? _{janitored by ybiC: Balanced <code> tags around codeblock, renamed from "Unknown compile error - desperation"}

Comment on Compilation failed, Vendor::Amazon, Vendor::BarnesNoble Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Unknown compile error - desperation by ysth (Canon) on Feb 23, 2004 at 03:44 UTC
If I understand it correctly, "Unknown error" results when a require fails in a way that should have set $@ but didn't. You can often get to the actual error by feeding perl directly the .pm file (.../Vendor/Amazon.pm or BarnesNoble.pm, in this case). You should report this using perlbug.	[reply]
Re: Re: Unknown compile error - desperation by luisfagundes (Initiate) on Feb 23, 2004 at 04:14 UTC
I got, thanks for all! The problem was that Vendor::Amazon had: `use base Vendor::Base;` [download] one thing I did but couldn't associate with was: `use strict; use base Vendor::Base;` [download] then I realized that if strict goes after, no problem. Later I figured all out: base is the module and Vendor::Base is the parameter, so quotes are necessary around Vendor::Base. with strict after or without strict, no problem without quote. That's it. Thanks again.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Unknown compile error - desperation by AidanLee (Chaplain) on Feb 23, 2004 at 02:18 UTC
i had an 'unknown error' earlier this week. I wrapped the offending code in an eval, and $@ pointed me to the real problem.	[reply]
Re: Unknown compile error - desperation by NetWallah (Canon) on Feb 23, 2004 at 03:05 UTC
Your line "'vendors' => qw(Amazon BarnesNoble) " is probably not doing what you expect.~~assigning a list to a scalar. This will result in the first value (Amazon) being assigned to "vendors".~~ Update:Valid Nit from message below has been picked. What I think you meant is to get a REFERENCE to a list, which you can do thus: `our %CONFIG = ('db_host' => 'localhost', 'db_name' => 'books', 'db_user' => 'user', 'db_pass' => 'pass', 'html_retrieve_timeout' => 30, 'vendors' => [qw(Amazon BarnesNoble)] ); # Dereference thus: print @{$CONFIG{vendors}};` [download] "Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again."	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: Unknown compile error - desperation by Anonymous Monk on Feb 23, 2004 at 03:13 UTC
I agree that the op probably wants an anonymous reference for the value of the %CONFIG{vendors}, but here's a nit. Your line "'vendors' => qw(Amazon BarnesNoble) " is assigning a list to a scalar. This will result in the first value (Amazon) being assigned to "vendors" Actually, it's assigning an odd number of elements to a hash: `'vendors', 'Amazon', 'BarnesNoble'` are the last three.	[reply] [d/l]
that is a reference to an array by Anonymous Monk on Feb 23, 2004 at 12:59 UTC
This is a reference to a list `use Data::Dumper; print Dumper( \( 1, 3, 4, 6, $_, %_ ) ); __END__ $VAR1 = \1; $VAR2 = \3; $VAR3 = \4; $VAR4 = \6; $VAR5 = \undef; $VAR6 = {};` [download] A list is not a data structure.	[reply] [d/l]


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