note
shotgunefx
While for general purposes I would agree, but I do consider myself I good (not great) perl programmer
and I've found one really nice use.
<br><br>
We have our own persitance module at work based on CGI. Hopefully it will get released to CPAN eventually.
It's used for heavy weight applications. Some of them have 30 different screens. We use the HTML
shortcuts because by doing so, the module always knows exactly what next states are possible and
what fields should be coming in, what values they are allowed to contain and depending on what type
of fields (<select>s for instance) what values they can have and how many. It also handles
the filefields. You can upload a file input and ten screens later still access them as though
they were in the current submission.
<br><br>
All of this is moved to the module layer. You dont' have to do any of the validation at all. It's all
done for you.
<code>
print "INT -100 < 31 ",textfield(-name=>'int',-validate=>{
-datatype=>'INT',
-min=>'-100',
-max=>'31',
-required=>1
}
),br();
</code>
<br>
Now when the user submits, the module knows that it needs a a parameter called
int with a value between -100 and 31. If it doesn't get it, it rolls back
to the previous screen with an error message "You need to enter an integer
between -100 and 31" automatically generated and the offending field marked visually.
<br><br>
Of course, generating the actually code for a complex layout is a huge pain which is
why we have a custom parser that takes an HTML page and translates it to CGI.pm syntax.
Now this type of solutions isn't for everything. (Lot's of overhead) but for a complex app
it certainly can outweigh the cons.
<br><br>For a simple app, this would be like lighting a cigarette with a blowtorch but unifying the input and output does offer some interesting possiblities.<br>
My two cents anyway.
<br><br>
-Lee
<br><br>
"To be civilized is to deny one's nature."
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