Wow. Looks like more work to me.

I just don't see the value in re-inventing the wheel, or trying to remember every little implementation detail, each time I need to engineer something.

I don't see how boo_radley using Net::SMTP is reinventing the wheel. It's a great module, flexible and lets you send an email in as little as 8 or 9 lines.

just type perldoc Mail::Internet and you can read about how to use the smtpsend() method without worrrying about details regarding the SMTP protocol.

Have you tried perldoc Net::SMTP?

Personally, I find using Net::SMTP much easier, the mail headers really aren't that difficult: Probably easier than the method you are using. But it all depends on the application.

boo, here's how you can use here docs with Net::SMTP (and I don't necessarily see a problem with using a here doc for this, a template might be overkill):

use Net::SMTP;
use strict;

my $mailserver = '127.0.0.1';

my $smtp = Net::SMTP->new($mailserver);
$smtp->mail('me@mydomainname.org');
$smtp->to('recipient@theirdomain.org');
$smtp->data();

$smtp->datasend(<<MYEMAIL);
To: recipient\@theirdomain.org
Subject: This is my subject

An example of Net::SMTP with here docs

See ya later!

MYEMAIL

$smtp->dataend() or print "Message sending failed!";
$smtp->quit;
[download]

In the above example, the mail() and to() methods actually tell the mailserver the recipient and sender, if you leave out the To: and From: (even subject:) headers, it shouldn't be a problem, but you still need the blank line before your real message begins. That's really all there is to remember, the rest is in the Net::SMTP docs.

$ perldoc perldoc
Updates: changed one or two words and qualified the opening "wow"