Well, if that's what I meant, I probably would have typed something like this:

for (@line) {
    s/</&lt;/g;
    s/>/&gt;/g;
}
[download]

But to answer your question: It's actually less brain drain to use a tested and complete module than to write equivalent code -- especially when the code isn't equivalent at all.... Or were you under the impression that the only dangerous characters for HTML rendering are "<" and ">"?

    -- Chip Salzenberg, Free-Floating Agent of Chaos