and I don't see that as a bad practice. Works like expected and is documented. The alternative would be to shove the result explicitly through three other subs: 
$thingy -> foo (1,2) -> to_output_channel; 
$string = $thingy -> foo (1,2) -> as_string; 
@lines = $thingy -> foo (1,2) -> as_list;

[download]
which gains me what exactly?
It gains you
  1. explicit clarity of intent
  2. 3 parameterizable output methods
  3. 3 methods which can be re-used or overloaded as needed
  4. The ability to call all 3 output methods, none or any combination simply by mixing/matching method calls.
Should I avoid localtime and roll my own?
Well, no. Try Date::localtime or Time::Local or anything in the DateTime hierarchy.

Carter's compass: I know I'm on the right track when by deleting something, I'm adding functionality

In reply to Re^2: Returning undef: The point I would like Damian to reconsider by princepawn
in thread Returning undef: The point I would like Damian to reconsider by martin

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.