I've recommended Smart::Comments here many times, but I'll admit to not using it much recently. What you call "The Big Fat Shortcoming" has never been a problem for me; if I need to retain the output, a simple script 2>log has always done the job perfectly. With the advantage over internally specifying a file, that I can do script 2>&1 | tee log | more which I find very useful.

The big limitation of S::C for me is its verbosity. I don't need 4 lines of output for every traced variable; one is sufficient. The way it dumps structures is equally pointlessly verbose. And the cutesy for loop tracing wears thin very quickly. I did start to look at substituting Data::Dump for structures and so on, but them something else caught my attention more and I never completed the exercise.

Like you, I think that the idea of the module, including the source filter, perfectly sound for the purpose, it's just the details that let it down in my view.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
RIP an inspiration; A true Folk's Guy

In reply to Re: In Defense of Smart::Comments by BrowserUk
in thread In Defense of Smart::Comments by Xiong

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.