I would be stronger on this. If you are going to use formatting functions beyond printf(), use Perl6::Form. Those who are learning this area should not learn "format"; "format" will force them to learn many idiosyncracies that they will then have to un-learn when "form" becomes the standard in perl6. It will also generate code that fewer and fewer people understatnd over the years. Perl6::Form is no harder to learn. In many ways it's easier to learn if you're doing simple things, and it leaves you with more flexibility in your code, since formatting is not tied to the action of sending output.

I intend no disrespect to "format". It was a valuable feature which has served my software well. The new "form" has learned from it and brought us a much cleaner implementation. We should use it for any new collection of formatting code, and we should direct those who are new to the area to it, so they don't lean something that will soon be fading.

Addendum: I can think of two reasons why you might want to continue to use the Perl5 "format" in writing new code:

• To maintain consistency with a large body of code that already uses "format".
• For small things that must run in and environment where it's difficult to install modules like Perl6::Format.

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