PDL::Options
Options(s)     User Contributed Perl Documentation     Options(s)



NAME
       PDL::Options - simplifies option passing by hash in PerlDL

SYNOPSIS
         use PDL::Options;

         %hash = parse( \%defaults, \%user_options);

         use PDL::Options ();

         $opt = new PDL::Options;
         $opt = new PDL::Options ( \%defaults );

         $opt->defaults ( \%defaults );
         $opt->synonyms ( { 'COLOR' => 'COLOUR' } );

         $hashref = $opt->defaults;

         $opt->options ( \%user_options );

         $hashref = $opt->options;

         $opt->incremental(l);
         $opt->full_options(s);


DESCRIPTION
       Object to simplify option passing for PerlDL subroutines.
       Allows you to merge a user defined options with defaults.
       A simplified (non-OO) interface is provided.

Utility functions
       ifhref

         parse({Ext => 'TIF', ifhref($opt)});

       just return the argument if it is a hashref otherwise
       return an empty hashref. Useful in conjunction with parse
       to return just the default values if argument is not a
       hash ref

NON-OO INTERFACE
       A simplified non-object oriented interface is provided.
       These routines are exported into the callers namespace by
       default.

       parse( \%defaults, \%user_options)
           This will parse user options by using the defaults.
           The following settings are used for parsing: The
           options are case-sensitive, a default synonym table is
           consulted (see "Default Synonyms"), minimum-matching
           is turned on, and translation of values is not per-
           formed.

           A hash (not hash reference) containing the processed
           options is returned.

             %options = parse( { LINE => 1, COLOUR => 'red'}, { COLOR => 'blue'});


       iparse( \%defaults, \%user_options)
           Same as "parse" but matching is case insensitive

       Default Synonyms

       The following default synonyms are available in the non-OO
       interface:

         COLOR  => COLOUR
         COLOUR => COLOR
         CENTER => CENTRE
         CENTRE => CENTER


METHODS
       The following methods are available to PDL::Options
       objects.

       new()
           Constructor. Creates the object. With an optional
           argument can also set the default options.

       extend (\%options)
           This will copy the existing options object and extend
           it with the requested extra options.

       defaults( \%defaults )
           Method to set or return the current defaults. The
           argument should be a reference to a hash. The hash
           reference is returned if no arguments are supplied.

           The current values are reset whenever the defaults are
           changed.

       add_synonym (\%synonyms)
           Method to add another synonym to an option set The
           argument should be a reference to a hash.

       add_translation (\%translation)
           Method to add another translation rule to an option
           set.  The argument should be a reference to a hash.

       synonyms( \%synonyms )
           Method to set or return the current synonyms. The
           argument should be a reference to a hash. The hash
           reference is returned if no arguments are supplied.

           This allows you to provide alternate keywords (such as
           allowing 'COLOR' as an option when your defaults uses
           'COLOUR').

       current
           Returns the current state of the options. This is
           returned as a hash reference (although it is not a
           reference to the actual hash stored in the object). If
           full_options() is true the full options hash is
           returned, if full_options() is false only the modified
           options are returned (as set by the last call to
           options()).

       clear_current
           This routine clears the 'state' of the "PDL::Options"
           object so that the next call to current will return an
           empty list

       translation
           Provide translation of options to more specific values
           that are recognised by the program. This allows, for
           example, the automatic translation of the string 'red'
           to '#ff0000'.

           This method can be used to setup the dictionary and is
           hash reference with the following structure:

               OPTIONA => {
                           'string1' => decode1,
                           'string2' => decode2
                           },
               OPTIONB => {
                           's4' => decodeb1,
                          }
               etc....

           Where OPTION? corresponds to the top level option name
           as stored in the defaults array (eg LINECOLOR) and the
           anonymous hashes provide the translation from string1
           ('red') to decode1 ('#ff0000').

           An options string will be translated automatically
           during the main options() processing if autotrans() is
           set to true. Else translation can be initiated by the
           user using the translate() method.

       incremental
           Specifies whether the user defined options will be
           treated as additions to the current state of the
           object (1) or modifications to the default values only
           (0).

           Can be used to set or return this value.  Default is
           false.

       full_options
           Governs whether a complete set of options is returned
           (ie defaults + expanded user options), true, or if
           just the expanded user options are returned, false (ie
           the values specified by the user).

           This can be useful when you are only interested in the
           changes to the options rather than knowing the full
           state. (For example, if defaults contains keys for
           COLOUR and LINESTYLE and the user supplied a key of
           COL, you may simply be interested in the modification
           to COLOUR rather than the state of LINESTYLE and
           COLOUR.)

           Default is true.

       casesens
           Specifies whether the user defined options will be
           processed independent of case (0) or not (1). Default
           is to be case insensitive.

           Can be used to set or return this value.

       minmatch
           Specifies whether the user defined options will be
           minimum matched with the defaults (1) or whether the
           user defined options should match the default keys
           exactly. Defaults is true (1).

           If a particular key matches exactly (within the con-
           straints imposed bby case sensitivity) this key will
           always be taken as correct even if others are similar.
           For example COL would match COL and COLOUR but this
           implementation will always return COL in this case
           (note that for CO it will return both COL and COLOUR
           and pick one at random.

           Can be used to set or return this value.

       autotrans
           Specifies whether the user defined options will be
           processed via the translate() method immediately fol-
           lowing the main options parsing. Default is to auto-
           translate (1).

           Can be used to set or return this value.

       casesenstrans
           Specifies whether the keys in the options hash will be
           matched insensitive of case (0) during translation()
           or not (1). Default is to be case insensitive.

           Can be used to set or return this value.

       minmatchtrans
           Specifies whether the keys in the options hash  will
           be minimum matched during translation(). Default is
           false (0).

           If a particular key matches exactly (within the con-
           straints imposed bby case sensitivity) this key will
           always be taken as correct even if others are similar.
           For example COL would match COL and COLOUR but this
           implementation will always return COL in this case
           (note that for CO it will return both COL and COLOUR
           and pick one at random.

           Can be used to set or return this value.

       warnonmissing
           Turn on or off the warning message printed when an
           options is not in the options hash. This can be conve-
           nient when a user passes a set of options that has to
           be parsed by several different option objects down the
           line.

       debug
           Turn on or off debug messages. Default is off (0).
           Can be used to set or return this value.

       options
           Takes a set of user-defined options (as a reference to
           a hash) and merges them with the current state (or the
           defaults; depends on the state of incremental()).

           The user-supplied keys will be compared with the
           defaults.  Case sensitivity and minimum matching can
           be configured using the mimatch() and casesens() meth-
           ods.

           A warning is raised if keys present in the user
           options are not present in the defaults unless warnon-
           missing is set.

           A reference to a hash containing the merged options is
           returned.

             $merged = $opt->options( { COL => 'red', Width => 1});

           The state of the object can be retrieved after this by
           using the current() method or by using the options()
           method with no arguments.  If full_options() is true,
           all options are returned (options plus overrides), if
           full_options() is false then only the modified options
           are returned.

           Synonyms are supported if they have been configured
           via the synonyms() method.

       translate
           Translate the current option values (eg those set via
           the options() method) using the provided transla-
           tion().

           This method updates the current state of the object
           and returns the updated options hash as a reference.

               $ref = $opt->translate;


EXAMPLE
       Two examples are shown. The first uses the simplified
       interface and the second uses the object-oriented inter-
       face.

Non-OO
          use PDL::Options (':Func');

          %options = parse( {
                          LINE => 1,
                          COLOUR => 'red',
                         },
                         {
                          COLOR => 'blue'
                         }
                       );

       This will return a hash containg

           %options = (
                        LINE => 1,
                        COLOUR => 'blue'
                      )


Object oriented
       The following example will try to show the main points:

          use PDL::Options ();

          # Create new object and supply defaults
          $opt = new PDL::Options(   { Colour => 'red',
                                       LineStyle => 'dashed',
                                       LineWidth => 1
                                     }
                                  );

          # Create synonyms
          $opt->synonyms( { Color => 'Colour' } );





          # Create translation dictionary
          $opt->translation( { Colour => {
                                'blue' => '#0000ff',
                                'red'  => '#ff0000',
                                'green'=> '#00ff00'
                                       },
                               LineStyle => {
                                'solid' => 1,
                                'dashed' => 2,
                                'dotted' => 3
                                }
                             }
                           );

          # Generate and parse test hash
          $options = $opt->options( { Color => 'green',
                                      lines => 'solid',
                                     }
                                  );

       When this code is run, $options will be the reference to a
       hash containing the following:

          Colour => '#00ff00',
          LineStyle => 1,
          LineWidth => 1

       If full_options() was set to false (0), $options would be
       a reference to a hash containing:

          Colour => '#00ff00',
          LineStyle => 1

       Minimum matching and case insensitivity can be configured
       for both the initial parsing and for the subsequent trans-
       lating. The translation can be turned off if not desired.

       Currently synonyms are not available for the translation
       although this could be added quite simply.

AUTHOR
       Copyright (C) Tim Jenness 1998 (t.jen-
       ness@jach.hawaii.edu).  All rights reserved. There is no
       warranty. You are allowed to redistribute this software /
       documentation under certain conditions. For details, see
       the file COPYING in the PDL distribution. If this file is
       separated from the PDL distribution, the copyright notice
       should be included in the file.



perl v5.6.1                 2001-10-24                 Options(s)