I have written a module which takes advantage of Text::Autoformat and Date::Business to generate status reports for my boss (and my boss' boss.) So, the odd thing about program execution is that I actually print all strings (call them debug strings) which are appended to the final string as the program runs. In looking at the debug output, please note that even though my debug string plainly and clearly states that it is adding the following string to the final string: depth: 2 adding: ((        1. General If you actually look at the generated text. This item comes out bulleted as: 3. General instead of 1. General as advertised.

Text created while program is running

depth: 1 adding: ((    1. Accomplishments in the past week
        * Solved the sample bugfix test question posed by Jeb.
        * Installed Visio from floppies.
        * Created a flow diagram of the Obsolete Bugfix Checkin use ca
+se
         * Hand-wrote proposed addition to initial pull-down so that i
+t was
           completely manifest to the user how to edit the text of a b
+ugfix
           checkin
         * Developed a "final common pathway" flow for re-submitting b
+ugfix
           checkins that would be hooked into at two places in the ori
+ginal
           program flow --- the beginning from the new menu choice and
+ when
           the entered bug # was already obsoleted
         * Presented this design and upon reflection decided that the
           man-hours for implementation could not justify such an elab
+orate
           implementation
         * Opted to simply move the entry of obsolescence to a new scr
+een and
           parameterize it based on whether or not the bug was already
           obsoleted. 
        * Successfully went end-to-end after removing the "Reason for
          Obsolescence" text from PreDeleteForm.dhtml and added it to 
+my
          new ObsoleteText.pm/.dhtml files.
           
))
depth: 2 adding: ((        1. General
            * Allow the editing of the text of already-obsoleted bug r
+eports.
            * Automate generation of this report
            * Convert/print timesheet
            * Develop a deeper understanding of how the Web applicatio
+n framework
              actually works. Such an understanding is necessary if I 
+want to
              write good error-checking and handling routines.
            
              Concomitant with the understanding, I am developing a tr
+ee of pod
              documentation for referral by me and other developers.
              
            * Implement error-checking in the newly developed Obsolete
+Text.pm.  
))
depth: 2 adding: ((        2. Vacations
            * None
))
depth: 2 adding: ((        3. Classes
            * None
))
depth: 1 adding: ((    2. Plans for the next week
        1. General
            * Allow the editing of the text of already-obsoleted bug r
+eports.
            * Automate generation of this report
            * Convert/print timesheet
            * Develop a deeper understanding of how the Web applicatio
+n framework
              actually works. Such an understanding is necessary if I 
+want to
              write good error-checking and handling routines.
            
              Concomitant with the understanding, I am developing a tr
+ee of pod
              documentation for referral by me and other developers.
              
            * Implement error-checking in the newly developed Obsolete
+Text.pm.  
        2. Vacations
            * None
        3. Classes
            * None
))
depth: 1 adding: ((    3. Outstanding issues
        * Bcc'ed mail ends up in my INBOX. Would rather it be automati
+cally filed
          somewhere
        * Netscape doesn't remember email addresses that it should.
        * AruchkinForm.pm: how does the decode() function work?
        
            $driver_path_map =
              ARUDB::cache(
        "select decode(release_id, 999, '107', 1250, '107',
                       release_major_version || release_minor_version)
+,
                release_id
         from   aru_releases
         where  obsolete <> 'Y' or obsolete is null");
        
        * Not sure how updates are done to the database.
))
[download]

Actual output text

(at odds with what it said it was creating) Note under main bullet 2 That "General" is bulleted with a 3 even though the debug text promises it will output with a 1.

Status report for the week ending 02-09-2001

    1. Accomplishments in the past week
        * Solved the sample bugfix test question posed by Jeb.
        * Installed Visio from floppies.
        * Created a flow diagram of the Obsolete Bugfix Checkin use ca
+se
         * Hand-wrote proposed addition to initial pull-down so that i
+t
           was completely manifest to the user how to edit the text of
+ a
           bugfix checkin
         * Developed a "final common pathway" flow for re-submitting
           bugfix checkins that would be hooked into at two places in
           the original program flow --- the beginning from the new me
+nu
           choice and when the entered bug # was already obsoleted
         * Presented this design and upon reflection decided that the
           man-hours for implementation could not justify such an
           elaborate implementation
         * Opted to simply move the entry of obsolescence to a new
           screen and parameterize it based on whether or not the bug
           was already obsoleted.
         * Successfully went end-to-end after removing the "Reason for
           Obsolescence" text from PreDeleteForm.dhtml and added it to
           my new ObsoleteText.pm/.dhtml files.

    2. Plans for the next week
        3. General
            * Allow the editing of the text of already-obsoleted
              bug reports.
            * Automate generation of this report
            * Convert/print timesheet
            * Develop a deeper understanding of how the Web applicatio
+n
              framework actually works. Such an understanding is
              necessary if I want to write good error-checking and
              handling routines.

              Concomitant with the understanding, I am developing a tr
+ee
              of pod documentation for referral by me and other
              developers.

            * Implement error-checking in the newly developed
              ObsoleteText.pm.
        2. Vacations
            * None
        3. Classes
            * None
    3. Outstanding issues
        * Bcc'ed mail ends up in my INBOX. Would rather it be
          automatically filed somewhere
        * Netscape doesn't remember email addresses that it should.
        * AruchkinForm.pm: how does the decode() function work?

            $driver_path_map = ARUDB::cache( "select decode(release_id
+,
            999, '107', 1250, '107', release_major_version ||
            release_minor_version), release_id from aru_releases where
            obsolete <> 'Y' or obsolete is null");

        * Not sure how updates are done to the database.
[download]

Agenda.pm

package Text::Autoformat::Agenda;

require 5.005_62;
use strict;
use warnings;

require Exporter;

our @ISA = qw(Exporter);

# Items to export into callers namespace by default. Note: do not expo
+rt
# names by default without a very good reason. Use EXPORT_OK instead.
# Do not simply export all your public functions/methods/constants.

# This allows declaration    use Text::Autoformat::Agenda ':all';
# If you do not need this, moving things directly into @EXPORT or @EXP
+ORT_OK
# will save memory.
our %EXPORT_TAGS = ( 'all' => [ qw(
    
) ] );

our @EXPORT_OK = ( @{ $EXPORT_TAGS{'all'} } );

our @EXPORT = qw(
    
);
our $VERSION = '0.01';

our $incr;
our $depth;

# Preloaded methods go here.
sub new {

  my $class   = shift;
  my %config = @_;

  my $self   = bless \%config, $class;
}

sub tab { "    " x (@_ ? $depth+$_[0] : $depth) }

sub verbose_add_content {
  printf "depth: %d adding: ((%s))\n", $depth, $_[1];
  $_[0] .= $_[1]
} 

sub proc_array {

  my $self = shift;
  my $content;

  ++$depth;

  local $incr;



  while (@_) {
    my ($key,$val) = splice @_, 0, 2;

    if (!ref($val)) {
      ++$incr;
      my $F="$self->{Dir}/$val";
      open F, $F or die "Couldnt open $F: $!";
      my $_content;
      while (<F>) {
    $_content .= sprintf "%s%s", tab(1), $_;
      }

      my $bullet = sprintf "%s%s. %s\n%s",
    tab, $incr, $key, $_content;
      verbose_add_content($content,$bullet);
      # $content .= $bullet;
    } else {
      my $bullet = sprintf "%s%s. %s\n%s",
          tab, ++$incr, $key, $self->proc_array(@$val);
      verbose_add_content($content,$bullet);
      # $content .= $bullet
;
    }
  }
  --$depth;
  $content;
}

sub content {

  my $self = shift;

  my $body = $self->proc_array(@{$self->{Agenda}});

  "$self->{Title}\n\n$body";

}

1;
__END__
# Below is stub documentation for your module. You better edit it!

=head1 NAME

Text::Autoformat::Agenda - Automated agenda creation from flat files

=head1 SYNOPSIS

  use Text::Autoformat::Agenda; # requires Text::Autoformat
  use Date::Business # not required. just useful for my agendas

  my $d = new Date::Business(FORCE => 'next');

  my ($year,$month,$day) = ($d->image =~ /(.{4})(.{2})(.{2})/);

  my $pretty_date = "$month-$day-$year";

  my $agenda = Text::Autoformat::Agenda->new
    ( Dir   => '/home/tmbranno/status',
      Title => "Status report for the week ending $pretty_date",
      Agenda =>
       [
         "Accomplishments in the past week" => 'accomplishments.txt',
         "Plans for the next week"          =>
             [
               General   => 'plans.txt',
               Vacations => 'vacations.txt',
               Classes   => 'classes.txt'
             ],
         "Outstanding issues"               => 'issues.txt'
       ]
    );

  print $agenda->content;




=head1 DESCRIPTION

Stub documentation for Text::Autoformat::Agenda, created by h2xs. It l
+ooks like the
author of the extension was negligent enough to leave the stub
unedited.

Blah blah blah.

=head2 EXPORT

None by default.


=head1 AUTHOR

A. U. Thor, a.u.thor@a.galaxy.far.far.away

=head1 SEE ALSO

perl(1).

=cut
[download]

test.pl

# Before `make install' is performed this script should be runnable wi
+th
# `make test'. After `make install' it should work as `perl test.pl'

######################### We start with some black magic to print on f
+ailure.

# Change 1..1 below to 1..last_test_to_print .
# (It may become useful if the test is moved to ./t subdirectory.)

BEGIN { $| = 1; print "1..1\n"; }
END {print "not ok 1\n" unless $loaded;}
use Text::Autoformat::Agenda;
$loaded = 1;
print "ok 1\n";

######################### End of black magic.

# Insert your test code below (better if it prints "ok 13"
# (correspondingly "not ok 13") depending on the success of chunk 13
# of the test code):

use Text::Autoformat;
  use Text::Autoformat::Agenda; # requires Text::Autoformat
  use Date::Business; # not required. just useful for my agendas

  my $d = new Date::Business(FORCE => 'next');

  my ($year,$month,$day) = ($d->image =~ /(.{4})(.{2})(.{2})/);

  my $pretty_date = "$month-$day-$year";

  my $agenda = Text::Autoformat::Agenda->new
    ( Dir   => '/home/tmbranno/status',
      Title => "Status report for the week ending $pretty_date",
      Agenda =>
       [
         "Accomplishments in the past week" => 'accomplishments.txt',
         "Plans for the next week"          =>
             [
               General   => 'plans.txt',
               Vacations => 'vacations.txt',
               Classes   => 'classes.txt'
             ],
         "Outstanding issues"               => 'issues.txt'
     ]
    );

print autoformat $agenda->content, { all=>1 };
[download]

perl commandline to run (edit to taste)

PERL_DL_NONLAZY=1 /arudev/bin/perl -Iblib/arch -Iblib/lib -I/arudev/li
+b/perl5/5.6.0/sun4-solaris -I/arudev/lib/perl5/5.6.0 test.pl
[download]