Sure, formats are useful! They fill in a little niche between short scripts (where printf is about all you need) and application level software (where a templating system is a better idea).

But to round out a discussion of formats, it must be remembered that formats have become less useful over the years, as the existence of Perl ( and the existence of perl modules) has led to the ability to have robust, widespread templating systems, which can do all that formats do (and more), and you don't even have to compile them if you don't want to.

Historically, Perl has been extra careful about backwards compatibility. What worked in Perl 1 generally works in Perl 5.6. With Perl 6, this will change slightly. Another change in Perl 6, Larry has decided that formats don't belong in the core, but instead should be made a module, so that 5.X programs which use formats can simply add use Text::Format (or the moral equivalent) and not change signifigant portions of code.

Cheers,
Erik

In reply to Re: Are formats in perl useful? by erikharrison
in thread Are formats in perl useful? by ehdonhon

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