our $VERSION = '0.08';
$Version = eval $VERSION;
"0.08' doesn't fit in here. Using xdg's example:our $VERSION = '0.001_001';
$VERSION = eval $VERSION;
It's the "decimal alpha version" or the numbers used by "developer releases".
Those releases must use decimal alpha to keep from reporting the wrong module version number. | [reply]
[d/l]
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A bit of Googling turns up 'eval' $ExtUtils::MakeMaker::VERSION to make it numeric. It doesn't seem like that'd be necessary in your case, but it's apparently idiomatic usage in some cases:
The added statement is the 'standard' method of handling development
version numbers.
UPDATE: JavaFan points out that the possible is not the same as the good. I was not recommending this trick (in fact, I'd never seen it before), just trying to explain what it might mean.
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But that's only useful if you don't control the assignment of $VERSION itself (like $ExtUtils::MakeMaker::VERSION). If you want to put a numerical value in a variable, then:
our $var = 'string looking like a number';
$var = eval $var;
is not the way to earn brownie points. Suggest that during a job interview with me, and I won't recommend to my boss to hire you. You want a number inside your variable? Omit the quotes, don't use eval:
our $VERSION = 0.08;
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I was ignorantly cut-and-pasting; thanks for clarifying why the idiom is useful for ExtUtils::MakeMaker but not for most uses.
I considered mentioning the quotes, but didn't, because I thought that Perl determined the ‘purpose’ of a scalar when it was used, not when it was created. As you point out, I was wrong:
$ perl -MDevel::Peek -e 'Dump "0.08"; Dump 0.08'
SV = PV(0x80306c) at 0x800cc0
REFCNT = 1
FLAGS = (POK,READONLY,pPOK)
PV = 0x205700 "0.08"\0
CUR = 4
LEN = 8
SV = NV(0x812e00) at 0x800c6c
REFCNT = 1
FLAGS = (NOK,READONLY,pNOK)
NV = 0.08
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