NAME

Locale::RecodeData - Abstract Base Class for Charset Converters

SYNOPSIS

    # For compatibility with Perl 5.005 and earlier, you must
    # *use* the module before inheriting from it!
    use qw (Locale::RecodeData);
    use base qw (Locale::RecodeData);

DESCRIPTION

The module Locale::RecodeData serves as an abstract base class to all converters used by Locale::Recode(3).

Adding new conversion modules is currently not straightforward, and you will have to edit the sources of some modules for that purpose.

First, you have to add your new converter class to the list found in Locale::_Conversions(3), so that Locale::Recode(3) knows about its presence. If there are valid aliases for the codeset of your converter, you will also have to edit Locale::_Aliases(3).

Finally, you have to implement the (protected) conversion routine _recode(). See below ("INTERFACE") for details.

CONSTRUCTOR

new (from => FROM_CODESET, to => TO_CODESET): The constructor takes two (named) arguments:

from: The canonical name of the source codeset. Aliases have already been resolved and the name is converted to uppercase.
to: The canonical name of the destination codeset. Aliases have already been resolved and the name is converted to uppercase.

You normally don't have to implement the constructor. The default constructor implemented here will store the source and destination codesets in the protected members "_from" and "_to".

METHODS

The class implements one method:

_getError: Returns the (protected) member "_error".

INTERFACE

New conversion classes must provide the following interface:

new (from => FROM_CODESET, to => TO_CODESET): The constructor takes two (named) arguments:

from: The canonical name of the source codeset. Aliases have already been resolved and the name is converted to uppercase.
to: The canonical name of the destination codeset. Aliases have already been resolved and the name is converted to uppercase.

_getError: Should return the last error (as a string) or false if there was no error.
This method is implemented in the base class already.
_recode STRINGREF: Should convert the argument "STRINGREF" in-place. In case of failure, return false, and make provisions that the method "_getError()" returns an informative error message.