++ for the reasoning behind your choice.

However, reading the code it strikes me there may be a more general approach. Name all final expression values and put them in variables. Then you can simply interpolate them in a qq string and be done with it.

As a bonus, it's more self documenting.

Also, from your example above, note how the duplication of $new + $old goes away.

I rarely generate HTML like this, but perhaps an argument can be made that the method and sub calls above (createLink, sprintf) are special enough to do something clever with the Interpolation module to be able to write something like this: 

my $message_count = $new + $old;
$html .= "$createLink{$USER, "you"} have $message_count $plural_of{"me
+ssage", $message_count}";

[download]

(Escaping the HTML is left as an exercise for the reader, as is tradition)

/J

In reply to Re^2: Perl style: Arguing against three-argument join() (++join '') by jplindstrom
in thread Perl style: Arguing against three-argument join() 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.