Why are Perl source filters bad and when is it OK to use them?

by

Why source filters are bad:

  1. Nothing but perl can parse Perl. (Source filters are fragile.)
  2. When a source filter breaks pretty much anything can happen. (They can introduce subtle and very hard to find bugs.)
  3. Source filters can break tools that work with source code. (PPI, refactoring, static analysis, etc.)
  4. Source filters are mutually exclusive. (You can’t use more than one at a time — unless you’re psychotic).

When they’re okay:

  1. You’re experimenting.
  2. You’re writing throw-away code.
  3. Your name is Damian and you must be allowed to program in latin.
  4. You’re programming in Perl 6.

More Related Contents:

  1. How can i do this in perl, shortcut truthtable [closed]
  2. How to retrieve the values of required keys in Perl [closed]
  3. Perl: Meaning of double squared brackets after a string?
  4. What does this HTML::Parser() code do in Perl? [closed]
  5. Why use strict and warnings?
  6. Why does modern Perl avoid UTF-8 by default?
  7. Why is three-argument open calls with autovivified filehandles a Perl best practice?
  8. What’s the difference between Perl’s backticks, system, and exec?
  9. How can I parse dates and convert time zones in Perl?
  10. Which one is good practice, a lexical filehandle or a typeglob?
  11. How do I tell if a variable has a numeric value in Perl?
  12. Perl memory usage profiling and leak detection?
  13. How should I use the “my” keyword in Perl?
  14. Global symbol requires explicit package name
  15. How do I include functions from another file in my Perl script?
  16. How can I check if a file exists in Perl?
  17. Using Encode::encode with “utf8”
  18. How can I start an interactive console for Perl?
  19. What does =~ do in Perl? [closed]
  20. How to convert letters with accents, umlauts, etc to their ASCII counterparts in Perl?
  21. Do you use an exception class in your Perl programs? Why or why not?
  22. How do I break out of a loop in Perl?
  23. Hidden features of Perl?
  24. “inappropriate ioctl for device”
  25. In Perl, how can I check from which module a given function was imported?
  26. How can I verify that a value is present in an array (list) in Perl?
  27. Demystifying the Perl glob (*)
  28. Perl Subroutine Prototyping — The correct way to do it
  29. Why do hash keys have different order when printing?
  30. How can I manually interpolate string escapes in a Perl string?

Leave a Comment