The first line opens a file with read/write access (the '>' means you'll be doing read/write - no character there would indicate read only). You're associating with this file the filehandle "HTMLFILE".

Almost--the ">" prefix means it's opening the file for write access only--and if the file exists already, it's truncated (that is to say, it's erased the moment you open the file with >). For read/write, you'd want to use +< or +>> (see open for why not to use +>, and why not to do this in a text file anyway).

When you omit the filehandle in the print statement, it prints to the selected filehandle, which is STDOUT when you start but can be changed using select (e.g. select (HTMLFILE);)


If God had meant us to fly, he would *never* have give us the railroads.
    --Michael Flanders

In reply to Re: Re: Re: How do I print output to STDOUT instead of to an HTML file? by ChemBoy
in thread How do I print output to STDOUT instead of to an HTML file? by Anonymous Monk

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