Writing code you don't understand two days later is a bad thing. Perhaps you need to comment the code more.

The goal in this case, though, is to learn how to modularize your code effectively. Most CGI programs I write use a dispatch table:

my $thing = $cgi->param('action');

my %actions = (
  login => [ \&login ],
  main => [ \&view_page, 'front' ],
  index => [ \&view_page, 'index' ],
  unknown => [ sub { die "unknown action '$thing'" } ],
);

my ($func,@args) = @{ $actions{$thing} or $actions{unknown} };

$func->(@args);
[download]

Basically, I set up a hash of function references (and their arguments). Then I call the function corresponding to the action.

Most of my code is broken down into functions in the case of main functionality and repeated functionality -- in other words, the main actions (logging in, viewing a page, searching) are in functions, and common tasks (reading a config file, saving data) are in functions as well.

japhy -- Perl and Regex Hacker

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