Re: Getting a / when regex should produce nothing

[email protected] wrote:
...
> But you left out one important caveat which could scare away
> more potential users than it saves.
> 
> The retention of values from previous executions applies
> only to global variables.

Ah, yes.
But that would have triggered another discussion (which it might now 
still do of course), about what exactly /is/ a global variable, in the 
context of a mod_perl handler or perl script run under modperl::Registry.
I must admit that I am not totally clear on that subject either.  I 
understand the basic idea of scoping, but as to the fine distinctions 
between "our" and "my" variables defined/referenced within/without 
various functions defined in the same package, and what mod_perl makes 
of this package when it compiles it, I tend to get a bit confused.  And 
I would not be surprised if the perl documentation to that effect 
confused a relative beginner even more.
So again, to be defensive I find that the safest (if not most 
efficient/elegant) way is to just treat every variable as a potential 
problem, and make sure they are (re-)initialised unless I specifically 
don't want them to be.

This is no critic to the writers of the perl and mod_perl documentation. 
  I am sure that this particular topic is quite hard to get across 
clearly and succintly to perl plodders such as me.
And I find the perl documentation, in general, extremely accessible and 
a treasure-trove of information (and not just about perl).
It's just that on that particular topic I seem to be a bit thick, and 
considering that, I'd rather be safe than sorry.