NAME

Zoidberg - a modular perl shell

SYNOPSIS

You most likely want to use the default config files as installed by the ProgramFiles package and all the modules from the Zoidberg package.

  use Zoidberg;

  # set config
  my $fluff_conf = {
    'prefix'       => '/usr/local',     
    # $prefix/share/zoid/... expected to exist
    'config_dir'   => '/home/my_user/.zoid',
    'config_file'  => 'profile.pd',
    'core_file'    => 'core.pd',
    'grammar_file' => 'grammar.pd',
  };

  # create and init parent object
  my $cube = Zoidberg->new;
  $cube->init($fluff_conf);
  
  # start interactive mode
  $cube->main_loop;
  
  # exit nicely
  my $exit = $cube->round_up ? 1 : 0;
  exit $exit;

PROJECT

Zoidberg provides a shell written in perl, configured in perl and operated in perl. It is intended to be a replacement for bash in the future, but that is a long way. Most likely you will have to be a perl programmer or developer to enjoy this.

DESCRIPTION

This class provides a parent object in charche of a whole bunch of plugins. Most of the real functionality is put in this plugins. Also this class is in charche of broadcasting events. Stubs are provided for core plugins. This class autoloads plugin names as subroutines.

EXPORT

None by default.

METHODS

Some usefull methods:

new()

  Simple constructor

init(\%config)

  Initialize secondary objects and set config

main_loop()

  Spans interactive shell reading from secondary object 'Buffer' or from STDIN.

list_objects()

  List secondary objects.

object($zoidname)

  Returns secondary object stored under $zoidname.

test_object($zoidname, $class)

  Returns true if object $zoidname exists and is blessed as $class

list_aliases()

  List aliases in grammar -- used to generate help function

print($ding, $type, $options)

  USE this in secondary objects !

  Fancy print function -- used by plugins to print instead of
  perl function "print"
  It uses Data::Dumper for complex data

  $ding can be ref or string of any kind
  $type can be any string and is optional
     examples are: "debug", "message", "warning" and "error"
  $type also can be an ansi color.
  $options is an string containing chars as option switches
        n : put no newline after string
        m : force markup
        s : data is ref to array of arrays of scalars -- think sql records

ask($question)

  Does a read with $question as prompt -- returns answer

abs_path($file, $reference)

  Returns the absolute path for possible relative $file
  $reference is optional an defaults to $ENV{PWD}

scan_dir($dir)

  Returns contents of $dir as a hash ref containing :
        'files' => [@files],
        'dirs' => [@dirs],
        'rest' => [@rest],
  'rest' are all files that are not (a symlink to) a file or dir

exit()

  Called by plugins exit zoidberg -- this end a main_loop loop

broadcast_event($$event_name, @args)

  Let all who are interrested know that event $event has taken place
  under conditions @args

register_event($event_name, $zoid_name)

  register object $zoid_name for event $event_name

unregister_event($event_name, $zoid_name)

  unregister object $zoid_name for event $event_name

registered_events($zoid_name)

  list events for object $zoid_name

registered_objects($event_name)

  list objects for event $event_name

unregister_all_events($zoid_name)

  unregister object $zoid_name for all events

init_postponed($zoidname, $class, @args)

  initialise a secundary object under name $zoidname of class $class
  and with arguments @args

AUTHOR

Jaap Karssenberg || Pardus [Larus] <j.g.karssenberg@student.utwente.nl>

R.L. Zwart, <carlos@caremail.nl>

Copyright (c) 2002 Jaap G Karssenberg. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

perl

<http://zoidberg.sourceforge.net>