formats considered harmful? (was Re: report generation with format/write)

Larry Wall wrote:
> [email protected] writes:
> : Does anyone actually teach report generation with format/write?  I
> : haven't really seen anyone using it much in the last few years, but I've
> : just had a corporate client ask us to teach "reports" in Perl.
> : 
> : It's not part of our standard introductory Perl course, and to be honest
> : I'm dreading having to write it ... ick ick ick.
> 
> Unless line printers come back into vogue, I wouldn't put a lot of
> stress on it.  These days, most reports are printed on browser screens.


Hmm...from the mouth of the original author of formats.  Maybe it's time we
stopped teaching them.  :)

Sometimes, I feel like I am cheating students by glossing over formats,
since they are there in the language and I have used them myself for some
tasks I probably couldn't have done without them.

The hardest thing I have had is whether or not to cover them in the freely
redistributable tutorial I am writing (http://www.ebb.org/PickingUpPerl).
This tutorial came out of class prep. that I did for training courses, and I
always deferred to _Learning Perl_ for information on formats (as I, too,
dreaded writing format tutorial).  Perhaps I should leave them out
altogether.  Ah, decisions, decisions.  :)


> On the other hand, maybe fixed-width characters will be viewed as retro
> and cool in 5 years.  You never know, you know...

That would be particularly post-modern.  :)


(My best anecdotal story about formats was when I first learned Perl as a
 teenager coding for my dad (who first taught me Perl)'s software consulting
 company.  I used to submit my code to him in printed form for reviews.


 He had never used formats himself, and we had to fire up perl and check
 before I could convince him that:

  $---;

 was not an typo.  :)
-- 
         -  [email protected]  -  Bradley M. Kuhn  -  [email protected]  -
                          http://www.ebb.org/bkuhn