OK, I don't understand what you mean by "fair." I found a way to do something that's faster than another way of doing it. I don't get how making something faster that works is somehow perceived as a bad thing. You say

The reduction in time is not because of backticks, but because you're avoiding the shell metachars, meaning that Perl can go directly to the command, rather than forking the shell first.
As far as I can tell, using backticks is precisely what allows me to avoid using shell metacharacters (I am assuming you mean > and &). I guess I am having trouble understanding your position.

Do you have a better alternative?
I like computer programming because it's like Legos for the mind.

In reply to Re^2: I think I just found a good reason to use backticks in a void context. by OfficeLinebacker
in thread I thought I found a good reason to use backticks in a void context, but I was wrong. by OfficeLinebacker

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