in reply to Pure Perl or the toolkit?

...shell out to do something, or do it all in Perl. Many purists argue that if it's possible to do it in Perl, you should do it in Perl. Portability and such.

I am not sure it is possible to argue that one should *generally* use a pure Perl solution, or *generally* shell out.
It's on a case by case basis.

For me, I suppose the deciding factor is portability requirements.

If the code needs to run in many different environments, such as CPAN module, then I would use pure Perl as much as possible. Definitely if it is possible in the core, less likey if a non-core modules is required. The result is probably quicker execution time.

If my production environment is limited to a certain type, as in your specific example, where the environment may be assumed, then I see nothing wrong with using the toolkit. The result is probably quicker implementation time.
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bm

In Section Meditations