NAME

Lingua::Boolean::Tiny - a smaller Lingua::Boolean, with support for more languages

SYNOPSIS

use 5.010;
use Lingua::Boolean::Tiny qw( boolean );

my $response = "ja";  # German for "yes"

if (boolean $response) {
   say "Yes!";
}
else {
   say "No!";
}

DESCRIPTION

This module provides an API roughly compatible with Lingua::Boolean but has no non-core dependencies, and supports Perl 5.6.2+ (though Perl versions earlier than 5.8 have pretty crummy Unicode support).

Lingua::Boolean::Tiny includes hand-written support for the world's twelve most commonly spoken languages (Standard Chinese, English, Castillian Spanish, Hindi, Russian, Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali, French, Malay, German and Japanese). Lingua::Boolean::Tiny::More (which is auto loaded on demand) provides support for almost any other language you can think of, but it may not be to the same standard.

The string "1" is always true, and "0" is always false.

Object-Oriented Interface

Constructor

Lingua::Boolean::Tiny->new($lang)

Construct a new object supporting the given language. $lang should be an ISO language code (e.g. "en" for English or "zh" for Chinese).

If the language is not recognised, a warning is issued and an object with support for just English is returned.

Lingua::Boolean::Tiny->new(\@lang)

Construct a new object supporting the union of multiple languages.

Unrecognised languages are simply ignored.

Because a string could be interpreted differently in different languages (e.g. "no" is a negative answer in English, but affirmative in Polish), the order is significant - in case of ambiguities, the earlier language wins.

Lingua::Boolean::Tiny->new()

Construct a new object supporting the union of the twelve main supported languages.

Lingua::Boolean::Tiny->new_strict($lang)

Like new, but rather than defaulting to English, returns undef.

You can alternatively construct objects using class names based on the language name:

my $indonesian = Lingua::Boolean::Tiny::Malay->new();

Methods

boolean($text)

Returns true if the text seems to indicate an affirmative answer (e.g. "yes"); returns false if the text seems to indicate an negitive answer (e.g. "no"); returns undef if the meaning of the text could not be established.

languages

Returns the name of the languages supported by this object.

langs

Returns the ISO codes of the languages supported by this object.

yes

Returns a canonical "yes" string for the language. This method only exists in objects which support a single language, not a union.

no

Returns a canonical "no" string for the language. This method only exists in objects which support a single language, not a union.

yesno($boolean)

Returns a canonical "yes" or "no" string for the language, depending upon whether $boolean is true or false. This method only exists in objects which support a single language, not a union.

This method is effectively the inverse of the boolean method.

Functional Interface

This module provides several functions:

boolean $text, $lang

Shortcut for:

Lingua::Boolean::Tiny->new($lang)->boolean($text)

$lang is optional, but may be an ISO language code or a union thereof.

This function is exported by default.

Lingua::Boolean::Tiny::languages()

Returns the full names of all supported languages.

This function is not exported.

Lingua::Boolean::Tiny::langs()

Returns the ISO codes of all supported languages.

This function is not exported.

BUGS

Please report any bugs to http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=Lingua-Boolean-Tiny.

SEE ALSO

Lingua::Boolean, String::BooleanSimple, I18N::Langinfo.

AUTHOR

Toby Inkster <tobyink@cpan.org>.

CREDITS

A thousand thanks to Lars Dɪᴇᴄᴋᴏᴡ 迪拉斯 (cpan:DAXIM) for helping me with Lingua::Boolean::Tiny::More and improving some of the translations in the main module.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

This software is copyright (c) 2013 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.