Re: Most useless function.

[Anonymous Monk]

Perl doesn't have any "useless" builtin functions, as far as I can tell; they all have (or had) a purpose.

Perl has a lot of redundant functionality; there's many ways to get the same job done.

If you're talking about user defined functions, look up the term "JAPH" sometime. ;-)

[tweetiepooh]

Of course I mean user defined.

And JAPH's are not useless, well not in the same way as a ispoweron() is useless.

[Anonymous Monk]

The point of a ispoweron() function is to detect whether the main power source is on, or whether you're running under backup power (UPS, generator, etc).

Once you detect that you're running under UPS power, you can then do a controlled shutdown of the system before power runs out.

It's much less useless than a JAPH, which is a complicated way of writing something that could be written in a straightforward way.