Re: improving the aesthetics of perl code

[jdtoronto]

Gee, it's actually not the worst Perl code I have seen by any stretch of the imagination. A couple of points:

• the else is easier to see if it is not cuddled:

  rather than this:
  
  } else {
  
  use this:
  
  }
  else {
  

  which then gives the braces the same relative position fo the if and the else.
• Carefully consider NOT using the unless it can be quite counter-intutitive when reading code.
Code is easier to read and flows more logically (IMHO) if you use block conditionals, for example:

This:

unless ( scalar(@downhosts) == 0 ) {
    print p, "There $verbage[2] ", scalar(@downhosts), "  $verbage[3] 
+unreachable\n", br;
    }

rather than:

unless ( scalar(@downhosts) == 0 ) { print p, "There $verbage[2] ", sc
+alar(@downhosts), "  $verbage[3] unreachable\n", br }

I see others have pointed out some different approaches to dealing with filehandles and the like. Only other suggestion I would make is to use CGI more effectively by not printing HTML directly - always use CGI/

And finally, use perltidy. I have it in the toolbox in my Komodo so I can run it over my code any time. It actually mkes it easier to spot problems when I can see thngs like the indentation level go wrong! It also gives me a consistency of style I am too lazy to get any other way.

jdtoronto