Re^2: call another program from perl

Actually putting the program name in a variable is an excellent step for several reasons:

It's no longer a hard-coded constant
It can be reused (for example in the error message when the open call fails)
this also prevents "constant drift" where you'd have to remember to change it in both the parameter to open as well as your error message

Especially if the location is likely to vary from machine-to-machine (or user-to-user) you might want to go even a step further by defining the default location as a constant (or Readonly value if you like) and initializing the path using that constant but allowing it to be overridden via Getopt::Long option or the environment.

Yeah the rest of the OP's code has problems, but this complaint's specious.

The cake is a lie.
The cake is a lie.
The cake is a lie.

Comment on Re^2: call another program from perl

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Re^3: call another program from perl by oko1 (Deacon) on Jul 18, 2008 at 12:52 UTC
Your corrections would be true if this was a program of any length. As it stands, you're picking nits. This is like insisting that a one-liner consisting of 'print "Hello, world"' must enable strictures, include a test suite, and be fully documented. -- Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. -- HG Wells	[reply]