Perl formats are controlled by built-in global variables. But global variables are deprecated. Where does this leave formats?

Formats should be deprecated as well. Conway for one, after a sympathetic discussion of their advantages and drawbacks in Perl Best Practices, concludes with

Don't use formats.

If you are used to formats and you get good results with them, this advice does not apply to you. But the current thread suggests otherwise.

So what are the alternatives?

Maybe something from the CPAN. Consider Perl6::Form.

If your needs are as simple as they sound, maybe you'll enjoy just doing it yourself:

my $page_heading;
my @details;
my $DETAILS_PER_PAGE;
my $FORM_FEED_CHARACTER;

PAGE:
while (@details) {
    print $page_heading;
    DETAIL:
    for (1..$DETAILS_PER_PAGE) {
        print shift @details;
    }
    print $FORM_FEED_CHARACTER;
}

[download]

In reply to Re: Format _top by Narveson
in thread Format _top by patmcl

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.