Re: Please Review First Program: Random Password Generator

That's pretty impressive coding style for your first Perl script.

Here are a few minor style points:

Rather than rolling my own usage, I find Pod::Usage handy.
A lot of people quickly out-grow Getopt::Std. Consider switching to Getopt::Long.
Explicit return's from your subs are customary and can make your code more readable.
It is common practice to declare and initialize your variables right before you use them. For example:

    # characters in password
    my @chars_pool = character_pool();

    # default password length
    my $pass_len = 14;

...

    # generate password
    my $password;
    for (1..$pass_len) {
        my $random_number = int rand @chars_pool;
        $password        .= $chars_pool[$random_number];
    }
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Re^2: Please Review First Program: Random Password Generator by hakkum (Acolyte) on Feb 04, 2011 at 02:10 UTC
Thanks toolic. I am pretty OCD so code cleanliness is almost required for me. I am still new to using modules and Getopt:Long seemed a bit more complicated to use...I was kind of coding in a hurry. so Getopt::Std suited me well at the time. I definitely plan to implement Getopt::Long shortly. I was unaware of Pod::Usage (and 99% of the included modules) so thank you for that; I will check it out. As for the return's, I have made the corrections; thanks again for the customary norms. I'm not too sure where I picked up on pre-declaring my variables, but you're right, it does shorten the overall length and doesn't reduce readability at all. I appreciate all the tips. I really want to take my time learning this stuff properly up front as opposed to having to correct ingrained bad habits later down the road. -- hakkum ...never forget the hakkum bakkum, the hakkum bakkum never forgets...	[reply]

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Re^2: Please Review First Program: Random Password Generator
by hakkum (Acolyte) on Feb 04, 2011 at 02:10 UTC

Thanks toolic. I am pretty OCD so code cleanliness is almost required for me. I am still new to using modules and Getopt:Long seemed a bit more complicated to use...I was kind of coding in a hurry. so Getopt::Std suited me well at the time. I definitely plan to implement Getopt::Long shortly. I was unaware of Pod::Usage (and 99% of the included modules) so thank you for that; I will check it out. As for the return's, I have made the corrections; thanks again for the customary norms. I'm not too sure where I picked up on pre-declaring my variables, but you're right, it does shorten the overall length and doesn't reduce readability at all.

I appreciate all the tips. I really want to take my time learning this stuff properly up front as opposed to having to correct ingrained bad habits later down the road.

-- hakkum

...never forget the hakkum bakkum,
the hakkum bakkum never forgets...

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