sub dump_object
     {
             my ($obj, $indent) = @_;
             my $istr = '  ' x $indent;

             #
             # Retrieve the catalog tag.  Because we are 
             # doing this in an array context, the
             # catalog tag will be returned as a (type, catalog, id) 
             # triplet, where each member of the triplet will behave as 
             # an integer or a string, depending on context.
             # If instead this next line provided a scalar context, e.g.
             #    my $cat  = $obj->catalog()->value();
             # then $cat would be set to the integer value of the 
             # catalog tag.
             #
             my @cat = $obj->catalog()->value();

             #
             # If the object is a plain item
             #
             if ($obj->type() == &EO_ITEM) {
                     #
                     # Note: The '%s' formats provide s string context, so
                     # the components of the catalog tag will be displayed
                     # as the symbolic values. If we changed the '%s'
                     # formats to '%d', the numeric value of the components
                     # would be displayed.
                     #
                     printf("%sITEM\n%s  Catalog = %s|%s|%s\n", 
                        $istr, $istr, @cat);
                     $indent++;

                     #
                     # Retrieve the value of the item.  If the item contains
                     # in turn a nested exacct object (i.e., an item or
                     # group),then the value method will return a reference
                     # to the appropriate sort of perl object
                     # (Exacct::Object::Item or Exacct::Object::Group).
                     # We could of course figure out that the item contained
                     # a nested item orgroup by examining the catalog tag in
                     # @cat and looking for a type of EXT_EXACCT_OBJECT or
                     # EXT_GROUP.
                     #
                     my $val = $obj->value();
                     if (ref($val)) {
                             # If it is a nested object, recurse to dump it.
                             dump_object($val, $indent);
                     } else {
                             # Otherwise it is just a 'plain' value, so
                             # display it.
                             printf("%s  Value = %s\n", $istr, $val);
                     }

             #
             # Otherwise we know we are dealing with a group.  Groups
             # represent contents as a perl list or array (depending on
             # context), so we can process the contents of the group
             # with a 'foreach' loop, which provides a list context.
             # In a list context the value method returns the content
             # of the group as a perl list, which is the quickest
             # mechanism, but doesn't allow the group to be modified.
             # If we wanted to modify the contents of the group we could
             # do so like this:
             #    my $grp = $obj->value();   # Returns an array reference
             #    $grp->[0] = $newitem;
             # but accessing the group elements this way is much slower.
             #
             } else {
                     printf("%sGROUP\n%s  Catalog = %s|%s|%s\n",
                         $istr, $istr, @cat);
                     $indent++;
                     # 'foreach' provides a list context.
                     foreach my $val ($obj->value()) {
                             dump_object($val, $indent);
                     }
                     printf("%sENDGROUP\n", $istr);
             }
     }