Re: No excuses about not using CGI.pm

[grinder]

Furthermore, if you don't like looking at all that scary stuff at the beginning of your script, you can place those BEGIN { } code blocks at the end of your script. Won't make a whiff of difference, it'll run just the same.

Randal is right, heed his advice.

--
g r i n d e r

[merlyn]

Not quite. The import can import prototypes, which need to sucked in before the rest of the code is compiled. Maybe not true for CGI.pm in particular, but I like to show a general template that can be copied for other problems without fear.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

[tilly]

Actually in general I consider avoiding unexpected prototype conversion a good thing. In which case having a good way to silently ignore unwanted prototypes (and trust me, I rarely want them) is a good thing!

[MeowChow]

But it's not silent (under -w):

mysub(1);

BEGIN {
  package Foo;
  require Exporter;
  @ISA = qw(Exporter);
  @EXPORT = qw(mysub);
  
  sub mysub ($) { print "mysub: @_\n" };
}
BEGIN {
  Foo->import();
}

## Output
main::mysub() called too early to check prototype at C:\Projects\GPerl
+\Test\g1.pl line 1.
mysub: 1

Though I don't quite understand, if BEGIN blocks are executed before the rest of the containing file is parsed (so sayeth perlmod), why does this happen at all?

   MeowChow                                   
               s aamecha.s a..a\u$&owag.print