difference between namespace and module?

[manimarank]

what is the difference between namespace and module?
can anyone help me briefly..

[numberwhun]

what is the difference between namespace and module?
can anyone help me briefly..

Ok, I am going to give you my take on this, but am sure that someone like Miller or KevinADC will be able to add more to this, even possibly links to better explanations.

A module is basically a set of subroutines that are designed to do a specific set of tasks, all with a common goal/topic. You "use" modules in your Perl code and once you do, their functions are available to you.

Now, say you have two modules that end up having two functions with the same name, but do two completely different things. You need to be able to tell them apart. That is where the module, acts like a namespace.

For example, if modules "My::First::Module" and "My::Second::Module" both have a function called "Count()", but you need the version from "My::First::Module", then you would specify that when you called the function, like so:

My::First::Module::Count(options)
{
some code;
}

Ok, that is my take on this topic. Short and sweet. Hopefully, if there is more, and I am sure there is, that someone will enlighten not only you, but me as well.

Regards,

Jeff

[KevinADC]

just think of the namespaces as boxes or compartments where all the stuff related to a module or your main program are kept. Jeffs explanation seems good enough, it can be extended to include data types too (and some other stuff), so things like:

$foo
@foo
&foo
foo()
*foo

when used in the same package/namespace are kept seperate.