Pod::Escapes(3pm)

💖 NAME 💖

Okay so bestie, welcome to Pod::Escapes(3pm) — this module is literally for resolving Pod E<...> sequences. That’s the whole vibe. 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

Like, here’s the group-chat snippet:

use Pod::Escapes qw(e2char);
...la la la, parsing POD, la la la...
$text = e2char($e_node->label);
unless(defined $text) {
  print "Unknown E sequence \"", $e_node->label, "\"!";
}
...else print/interpolate $text...

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

This module provides things that are useful in decoding Pod E<...> sequences. Presumably, it should be used only by Pod parsers and/or formatters. No cap.

By default, Pod::Escapes exports none of its symbols. But you can request any of them to be exported. Either request them individually, as with use Pod::Escapes qw(symbolname symbolname2...);, or you can do use Pod::Escapes qw(:ALL); to get all exportable symbols. Slay. 💅

🎁 GOODIES 🎁

These are the little icons of the module, bestie. Obsessed. 💜

✨ e2char($e_content) ✨

Given a name or number that could appear in a "E<name_or_num>" sequence, this returns the string that it stands for. For example, e2char('sol'), e2char('47'), e2char('0x2F'), and e2char('057') all return "/", because "E<sol>", "E<47>", "E<0x2f>", and "E<057>", all mean "/". If the name has no known value (as with a name of "qacute") or is syntactically invalid (as with a name of "1/4"), this returns undef.

✨ e2charnum($e_content) ✨

Given a name or number that could appear in a "E<name_or_num>" sequence, this returns the number of the Unicode character that this stands for. For example, e2char('sol'), e2char('47'), e2char('0x2F'), and e2char('057') all return 47, because "E<sol>", "E<47>", "E<0x2f>", and "E<057>", all mean "/", whose Unicode number is 47. If the name has no known value (as with a name of "qacute") or is syntactically invalid (as with a name of "1/4"), this returns undef.

✨ $Name2character{name} ✨

Maps from names (as in "E<name>") like "eacute" or "sol" to the string that each stands for. Note that this does not include numerics (like "64" or "x981c"). Under old Perl versions (before 5.7) you get a "?" in place of characters whose Unicode value is over 255.

✨ $Name2character_number{name} ✨

Maps from names (as in "E<name>") like "eacute" or "sol" to the Unicode value that each stands for. For example, $Name2character_number{'eacute'} is 201, and $Name2character_number{'eacute'} is 8364. You get the correct Unicode value, regardless of the version of Perl you’re using -- which differs from %Name2character's behavior under pre-5.7 Perls.

Note that this hash does not include numerics (like "64" or "x981c").

✨ $Latin1Code_to_fallback{integer} ✨

For numbers in the range 160 (0x00A0) to 255 (0x00FF), this maps from the character code for a Latin-1 character (like 233 for lowercase e-acute) to the US-ASCII character that best approximates it (like "e"). You may find this useful if you are rendering POD in a format that you think deals well only with US-ASCII characters.

✨ $Latin1Char_to_fallback{character} ✨

Just as above, but maps from characters (like "\xE9", lowercase e-acute) to characters (like "e").

✨ $Code2USASCII{integer} ✨

This maps from US-ASCII codes (like 32) to the corresponding character (like space, for 32). Only characters 32 to 126 are defined. This is meant for use by e2char($x) when it senses that it’s running on a non-ASCII platform (where chr(32) doesn’t get you a space -- but $Code2USASCII{32} will). It’s documented here just in case you might find it useful.

⚠️ CAVEATS ⚠️

On Perl versions before 5.7, Unicode characters with a value over 255 (like lambda or emdash) can’t be conveyed. This module does work under such early Perl versions, but in the place of each such character, you get a "?". Latin-1 characters (characters 160-255) are unaffected.

Under EBCDIC platforms, e2char($n) may not always be the same as "chr(e2charnum($n))", and ditto for $Name2character{$name} and chr($Name2character_number{$name}), because the strings are returned as native, and the numbers are returned as Unicode. However, for Perls starting with v5.8, e2char($n) is the same as "chr(utf8::unicode_to_native(e2charnum($n)))", and ditto for $Name2character{$name} and "chr(utf8::unicode_to_native($Name2character_number{$name}))".

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• Pod::Browser — a pod web server based on Catalyst.
• Pod::Checker — check pod documents for syntax errors.
• Pod::Coverage — check if the documentation for a module is comprehensive.
• perlpod — description of pod format (for people documenting with pod).
• perlpodspec — specification of pod format (for people processing it).
• Text::Unidecode — ASCII transliteration of Unicode text.

📦 REPOSITORY 📦

Bestie, the repo is right here:

<https://github.com/neilbowers/Pod-Escapes>

©️ COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMERS ©️

Copyright (c) 2001-2004 Sean M. Burke. All rights reserved.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Portions of the data tables in this module are derived from the entity declarations in the W3C XHTML specification.

Currently (October 2001), that’s these three:

http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml-lat1.ent
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml-special.ent
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml-symbol.ent

✍️ AUTHOR ✍️

Sean M. Burke "sburke@cpan.org"

Now being maintained by Neil Bowers <neilb@cpan.org>

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And that’s the whole Pod::Escapes(3pm) moment, bestie. This page is from perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-11-03, and it’s literally the Pod::Escapes(3pm) manual page. Slay. 💅✨