There is nothing "wrong" with using any of those three approaches. I think the end results from each path would be pretty much the same. The difference lies in the experience gained by the programmer.

As an initiate to All Things Perl, I am indeed very tempted to use modules. It's a very alluring trap for the inexperienced to fall into. But in my humble opinion, modules should only be used when they fit the problem exactly or when you need to write a program quickly and aren't too concerned about roughness round the edges.

I very rarely write things from scratch, except if I can gain some profound enlightenment from it. I feel it's better to meditate on some existing code and then modify it to your particular needs. I find that it's better that way, because you learn how to program well from good programmers, and learn how to spot "bad programming". There's a chance that, even if you are quite competent at Perl, you could be slightly misguided when writing from scratch. But then again, your mileage may vary.

-- Rozallin

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