Chapter 2

The list includes all the subroutines and variables defined in the package. It also 

includes the symbol tables for any packages that begin with File::Find. For example, 

if you were to also use the fictitious package File::Find::Faster, then the preceding 

code would list  Faster::  for File::Find::Faster's symbol table.

All nonlexical

5

 symbols are stored in a symbol table even global variables. 

What is normally referred to as a global variable in Perl is actually just a variable in 

the default package called  main:: . You can access the main package's symbol table 

through two names %main:: and %::. So, in actuality, Perl has no global variables 

just package variables in the default package.

Aside from this default package, no automatic prefix is assumed. This means 

that all package names must be spelled out fully and are not based on the current 

package. For example, this code:

package Poets::Appolinaire;

@Books = qw(Alcools Calligrams);

is not equivalent to:

package Poets;

@Appolinaire::Books = qw(Alcools Calligrams);

In order to reference @Poets::Appolinaire::Books from within the Poets package, 

the full package name is required:

package Poets;

@Poets::Appolinaire::Books = qw(Alcools Calligrams);

This is a good reason to keep your package names reasonably short you'll have to 

type the full name whenever you need to refer to the package.

CAUTION Modules with similar names do not necessarily have any 

relationship. For example, the CGI and CGI::Thin modules have nothing in 

common. CGI::Thin is not necessarily a subclass of CGI, as those with 

object oriented experience might think. The most you can say with 

confidence is that they both have something to do with CGI.

5. Lexical symbols are those created with the my operator.

26