Make Perl script work in both Perl 5 and 6

Question

I have a Perl script that needs to run on both Perl 5 and Perl 6 environments. If using Perl6 I need to use "perl6::Form" while on Perl5 I need to use "Format".

This code works on both versions or perl without error:

BEGIN {
    if( $] ge 6){
        require Perl6::Form;
        Perl6::Form::->import();
    }
}

But I do not know how to "separate" the Perl6 code when running on Perl5.

if( $] ge 6){ # Perl6
    print form
    ...
    ...
} else { # perl5
    format STDOUT =
    ...
    ...
} 

This doesn't work cleanly as I get errors on Perl5:

Unquoted string "form" may clash with future reserved word at /usr/bin/script.pl line 628.
Name "main::form" used only once: possible typo at /usr/bin/script.pl line 641.

I've briefly looked at Text::CPP, but I don't want to have a dependency on a compiler being installed. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Answer 1

If using Perl6 I need to use "perl6::Form"

perl6::Form doesn't exist.

Perl6::Form is a Perl5 module that provides functionality similar to Perl6's form.

A Perl6 module would have no use for Perl6::Form even it could run it since it's part of the language.

But I do not know how to "separate" the Perl6 code when running on Perl5.

Perl6 is not a version of Perl5. Perl5 and Perl6 are completely different languages. (Perl5's latest version is currently 18.1) I don't see how you can think you can have a program executed by both.

The best way to separate a Perl5 program and a Perl6 program is to put them in different files. If you have a need to place them in the same file, you'll need to state that need for us to help you find an appropriate solution.