Hi,

I'm currently extending the online help of a software system we have here. It has a normal command line where typing in 'help' spills some general help text (more or less a list of known commands with short descriptions).
Now I'd like to do something like 'help <command>' for a more detailed help. Until now, the implementation is very trivial and in my opinion error prone:

...
  } elsif($command eq '?' or
      $command eq 'find') {
    &message(<<'EOT');
  Help menu for the command 'find':

  SYNOPSIS
         find <phrase>        - find <phrase> in lexicon and output al
+l
                                meanings found.

  DESCRIPTION
         Both commands are optional. If given a phrase, it is default
         blahblahblah

EOT
  } elsif($command eq 'add') {
    &message(<<'EOT');
  Help menu for the command 'add'

  SYNOPSIS
         add <lex> <entry>    - add an entry <entry> to the lexicon <l
+ex>

  DESCRIPTION
         This adds an entry to the lexicon with the name/type <lex>,
         <entry> must have proper syntax or it will be rejected. If
         blahblahblah

EOT

...

[download]
Now I'd like to place some variables into the here documents. E.g. the commands shouldn't be typed in explicitedly, but just the $command variable should be interpolated. HOwever, it seems to me, that here documents are a very static construct not allowing this "template mechanism".

Am I overseeing something?

Bye
 PetaMem

In reply to Interpolating in Here Documents? by PetaMem

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