Phoenix.pm: script archive

[Janis]

OK, Call me clueless and uninformed, but could you please explain WHY
these are bad and evil?  I've been using Perl for about a month now, and
they taugh me quite a few tricks.  Some examples of better ways of writing
these scripts would, in theory, help me even more!  :-)

-Heather (who is making a mental note never to show anyone HER code!)

> 
> Janis wrote:
> > 
> > Maybe this is common knowledge... but there's a decent script archive at
> > http://worldwidemart.com/scripts/.  Anyone interested in adding a message
> > board or guestbook to the phx.pm site (or even their own site!) might
> > wanna check those out before starting from scratch, they seem pretty
> > decent.
> > 
> > -Heather
> 
> Oooo.... Matt's Script Archive is considered evil by the Perl Gods.
> 
> Here is a quote from "The Timeline of Perl and its Culture"
> http://history.perl.org/PerlTimeline.html
> 
> > 1995
> ...
> > Matt Wright puts "Matt's Script Archive" online and will continue
> > to distribute nasty Perl code to the clueless and the unininformed
> > through the end of the 20th Century. Some of the more memorable
> > 'scripts' are the infamous Guestbook, formmail and WWWBoard. (October) 
> 
> And here is patch to the Perl5 Porters list that was sent this morring:
> 
> Chris Nandor wrote:
> > 
> > At 11:44 -0500 1999.10.18, Elaine -HFB- Ashton wrote:
> > >is 5 years old today is we use the official date in the perlhist pod. I'm
> > >not sure if this should be multiplied or calculated in dog years. :)
> > >
> > >Happy birthday Perl.
> > 
> > *** toke.c-orig Mon Oct 18 11:52:49 1999
> > --- toke.c      Mon Oct 18 13:00:21 1999
> > ***************
> > *** 453,458 ****
> > --- 453,468 ----
> >       if (*s++ != '#')
> >         return;
> >       while (*s == ' ' || *s == '\t') s++;
> > +
> > + #ifdef MATTS_SCRIPTS_ARE_EVIL
> > +     if (strnEQ(s, "Scripts Archive at:           http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/", 67)
> > +           ||
> > +       strnEQ(s, "Matt's Script Archive, Inc.:    http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/", 69)
> > +     ) {
> > +         Perl_croak(aTHX_ "Sorry, Matt's Scripts are evil");
> > +     }
> > + #endif
> > +
> >       if (strnEQ(s, "line ", 5)) {
> >         s += 5;
> >         sawline = 1;
> > 
> > --
> > Chris Nandor          mailto:pudge at pobox.com         http://pudge.net/
> > %PGPKey = ('B76E72AD', [1024, '0824090B CE73CA10  1FF77F13 8180B6B6'])
> 
> -- 
> Mark Pease                                   Mark.Pease at mototorola.com
> Motorola DigitalDNA(tm) Laboratories             perl at perl.sps.mot.com
> 2100 E. Elliot Rd.     Phone:(602)413-8191       Mail Stop: AZ34 EL701
> Tempe, AZ 85284        Pager:(800)381-3304           FAX:(602)413-8183
>    Author of "Software Engineering with Perl"
>