NAME

       Log::TraceMessages - Perl extension for trace messages used in debugging

SYNOPSIS

         use Log::TraceMessages qw(t d);
         $Log::TraceMessages::On = 1;
         t 'got to here';
         t 'value of $a is ' . d($a);
         {
             local $Log::TraceMessages::On = 0;
             t 'this message will not be printed';
         }

         $Log::TraceMessages::Logfile = 'log.out';
         t 'this message will go to the file log.out';
         $Log::TraceMessages::Logfile = undef;
         t 'and this message is on stderr as usual';

         # For a CGI program producing HTML
         $Log::TraceMessages::CGI = 1;

         # Or to turn on trace if there's a command-line argument '--trace'
         Log::TraceMessages::check_argv();

DESCRIPTION

       This module is a slightly better way to put trace statements into your code than just
       calling print().  It provides an easy way to turn trace on and off for particular sections
       of code without having to comment out bits of source.

USAGE

       $Log::TraceMessages::On
           Flag controlling whether tracing is on or off.  You can set it as you wish, and of
           course it can be "local"-ized.  The default is off.

       $Log::TraceMessages::Logfile
           The name of the file to which trace should be appended.  If this is undefined (which
           is the default), then trace will be written to stderr, or to stdout if $CGI is set.

       $Log::TraceMessages::CGI
           Flag controlling whether the program printing trace messages is a CGI program (default
           is no).  This means that trace messages will be printed as HTML.  Unless $Logfile is
           also set, messages will be printed to stdout so they appear in the output page.

       t(messages)
           Print the given strings, if tracing is enabled.  Unless $CGI is true or $Logfile is
           set, each message will be printed to stderr with a newline appended.

       trace(messages)
           Synonym for "t(messages)".

       d(scalar)
           Return a string representation of a scalar's value suitable for use in a trace
           statement.  This is just a wrapper for Data::Dumper.

           "d()" will exit with '' if trace is not turned on.  This is to stop your program being
           slowed down by generating lots of strings for trace statements that are never printed.

       dmp(scalar)
           Synonym for "d(scalar)".

       check_argv()
           Looks at the global @ARGV of command-line parameters to find one called '--trace'.  If
           this is found, it will be removed from @ARGV and tracing will be turned on.  Since
           tracing is off by default, calling "check_argv()" is a way to make your program print
           trace only when you ask for it from the command line.

AUTHOR

       Ed Avis, ed@membled.com

SEE ALSO

       perl(1), Data::Dumper(3).

POD ERRORS

       Hey! The above document had some coding errors, which are explained below:

       Around line 218:
           You forgot a '=back' before '=head1'