NAME

Acme::RunDoc - executes a Microsoft Word document as if it were Perl code

SYNOPSIS

Acme::RunDoc->do("helloworld.doc"); 

DESCRIPTION

It is recieved wisdom that word processors are better than text editors. After all, you can style your documents with different fonts and colours; you can take advantage of the built-in spell check; and your ugly single and double quote characters get auto-replaced with "smart" curly versions.

This module allows you to run Perl documents edited in Microsoft Word (and other word processors capable of saving in the ".doc" format) as normal Perl code. You can write scripts and run them like this:

perl -Microsoft::Word helloworld.doc

or call them from other files using:

Acme::RunDoc->do("helloworld.doc");

You can write Perl modules using Microsoft Word too. (Just take care to rename ".doc" to ".docm".) To "require" them:

Acme::RunDoc->require_file("Hello/World.docm");
Acme::RunDoc->require("Hello::World");

Acme::RunDoc searches @INC just like you'd expect.

You can even "use" modules written in Microsoft Word:

BEGIN {
  require Acme::RunDoc;
  Acme::RunDoc->use("Hello::World", "greet");
}

There's a handy shortcut for that too:

use Acme::RunDoc "Hello::World" => ["greet"];

do($file)

This module provides a class method do which works in an analagous method to Perl's built-in do $file function. In other words, it reads the contents of the file, and executes it (via eval).

Unlike Perl's built-in, it expects the Perl code to be in Microsoft Word's "doc" format. Headers, footers, footnotes and annotations are ignored. "Smart quotes" should be treated as their normal ASCII equivalents.

It may take a file name or an open file handle. (The filehandle needs to be seekable - see IO::Seekable and IO::File.)

require_file($file)

This class method is analagous to Perl's built-in require $file function. Performs a do on the given filename, but croaks if the file returns false at the end.

require($module)

This class method is analagous to Perl's built-in require Module function.

Unlike Perl's built-in, it expects Module::Foo to correspond to the file "Module/Foo.docm".

use($module)

This class method is analagous to Perl's built-in use Module function.

Unlike Perl's built-in, this is not automatically executed at compile time. You'll need to wrap it in a BEGIN { ... } block for that to happen.

Unlike Perl's built-in, there is no method for skipping the module's import method. If you don't want to run import, then just require the module.

import($module1, \@args1, ...)

A handy shortcut for:

BEGIN {
  require Acme::RunDoc;
  Acme::RunDoc->use($module1, @args1);
  Acme::RunDoc->use($module2, %args2);
  Acme::RunDoc->use($module3);
}

is:

use Acme::RunDoc
    $module1  => \@args1,
    $module2  => \%args2,
    $module3  => undef;

(See the sections on use, import and require in perlfunc if any of that confuses you.)

SEE ALSO

icrosoft::Word, Text::Extract::Word.

AUTHOR

Toby Inkster <tobyink@cpan.org>.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

This software is copyright (c) 2012 by Toby Inkster.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

cpanm Acme::RunDoc

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Acme::RunDoc