I'm working on a script to parse a Rational Rose design file (.cat/.mdl/.sub) and this pretty much does the job for me, However I had to resort to using a temporary file-handle for the "pre-processing", because when I read a line in from the original file, I may split it into three separate new lines. Here's an example of what the script does to the input (basically it pretty-prints the style so that the braces show up one per line, which makes other scripts reading this format easier to write)

BEFORE

   (object (name1 val1
      name2 val2))
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AFTER

   (
     object
     (
       name1 val1
       name2 val2
     )
   )
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My question is: Is there a way to do this without resorting to a secondary file? I have another script that will use this code recursively against a whole baseline of design files, and using temporary files may make it too slow.

The Script:

$tempfile = "jojowashere.jbc";

if ($#ARGV < 0)
{
  print "\nUSAGE: $0 filename.cat";
  exit(0);
}

open (fp,$ARGV[0]) || die ("Can't open $ARGV[0]! Exiting.");
open (tempfp,"> $tempfile") || die ("Can't create $tempfile! Exiting."
+);

while(<fp>)
{
  if (m/(^.*)(".+")(.*)/)
  {
    $a = $1; $b = $2; $c = $3;
    $a =~ s/\(/\n\(\n/g; $a =~ s/\)/\n\)\n/g;
    $c =~ s/\(/\n\(\n/g; $c =~ s/\)/\n\)\n/g;
    $_ = $a . $b . $c;
  }
  else
  {
    s/\(/\n\(\n/g;
    s/\)/\n\)\n/g;
  }
  print tempfp "\n$_";
}
close fp;
close tempfp;

$num_indents = 0;
open (fp,$tempfile) || die ("Can't open $tempfile!");
while (<fp>)
{
  s/^\s+//;
  s/\s+$//;
  chomp;

  if (length)
  {
    if (m/^\)$/)
    {
      --$num_indents;
    }
  
    $spacing = "";
    for ($j=0;$j<$num_indents;$j++) { $spacing .= "  " };
    print "\n$spacing$_";
  
    if (m/^\($/)
    {
      ++$num_indents;
    }
  }
}
close fp;
unlink $tempfile;
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Thanx, jojo