=item ${^ENCODING}
X<${^ENCODING}>
+DEPRECATED!!!
+
The I<object reference> to the C<Encode> object that is used to convert
the source code to Unicode. Thanks to this variable your Perl script
-does not have to be written in UTF-8. Default is I<undef>. The direct
-manipulation of this variable is highly discouraged.
+does not have to be written in UTF-8. Default is C<undef>.
+
+Setting this variable to any other value than C<undef> is deprecated due
+to fundamental defects in its design and implementation. It is planned
+to remove it from a future Perl version. Its purpose was to allow your
+non-ASCII Perl scripts to not have to be written in UTF-8; this was
+useful before editors that worked on UTF-8 encoded text were common, but
+that was long ago. It causes problems, such as affecting the operation
+of other modules that aren't expecting it, causing general mayhem. Its
+use can lead to segfaults.
+
+If you need something like this functionality, you should use the
+L<encoding> pragma, which is also deprecated, but has fewer nasty side
+effects.
+
+If you are coming here because code of yours is being adversely affected
+by someone's use of this variable, you can usually work around it by
+doing this:
+
+ local ${^ENCODING};
+
+near the beginning of the functions that are getting broken. This
+undefines the variable during the scope of execution of the including
+function.
This variable was added in Perl 5.8.2.
The C<%^H> hash provides the same scoping semantic as C<$^H>. This makes
it useful for implementation of lexically scoped pragmas. See
-L<perlpragma>.
+L<perlpragma>. All the entries are stringified when accessed at
+runtime, so only simple values can be accommodated. This means no
+pointers to objects, for example.
When putting items into C<%^H>, in order to avoid conflicting with other
users of the hash there is a convention regarding which keys to use.
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff