As you state an escapeHTML routine is provided by CGI.pm. For the purpose which is intended (ie display plain text in a browser window in the original form) CGI.pm's routine is inadequate.

I make this red flag to bull statement because it does not actually escape text in such a way as to render text with multiple spaces or newlines in a form that imitates the original text. Any sequences of spaces will render as a single space if you use $q->escapeHTML(). The snippet presented does the required &nbsp; subs. It offers the opportunity to convert \n to its HTML equivalent of <BR> which is potentially required. It also adds Perl Monks posting comptibility by escaping the [ and ] which thus far seems to have strangely been overlooked in CGI.pm :-)

cheers

tachyon

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