Whatever he is doing, I completely do _not_ understand it:
He is returning a dereference of
$errvar.
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
+---
# error()
# error($msg, ...)
#
# May be called as a class or object method to set or retrieve the
# package variable $ERROR (class method) or internal member
# $self->{ _ERROR } (object method). The presence of parameters indic
+ates
# that the error value should be set. Undef is then returned. In the
# abscence of parameters, the current error value is returned.
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
+---
sub error {
my $self = shift;
my $errvar;
{
# get a reference to the object or package variable we're munging
no strict qw( refs );
$errvar = ref $self ? \$self->{ _ERROR } : \${"$self\::ERROR"};
}
if (@_) {
# don't join if first arg is an object (may force stringification)
$$errvar = ref($_[0]) ? shift : join('', @_);
return undef;
}
else {
return $$errvar;
}
}
Carter's compass: I know I'm on the right track when by deleting something, I'm adding functionality