Perl Debate Time ;-)

[Arthur Corliss]

On Sat, 20 Mar 1999, Michael Fowler wrote:

> Personally, I consider local invaluable.  It makes the code I write, when
> doing certain things, far more readable.  For example:
> 
> 	# Without local
> 	my($backup_sig) = $SIG{__DIE__};
> 	$SIG{__DIE__} = 'IGNORE';	# ignore die requests
> 
> 	# code you don't want killing the entire program if it dies
> 	# goes here
> 
> 	$SIG{__DIE__} = $backup_sig;
> 
> As opposed to:
> 
> 	# With local
> 	{
> 		local($SIG{__DIE__}) = 'IGNORE';
> 		# code you don't want killing the entire program if it dies
> 		# goes here
> 	}
> 
> To me, the latter is far cleaner, and easier to read.  This is my primary
> use of local.

This is perhaps one of the best arguments I've seen for keeping local,
overloading signal handlers.  Good call.  :-)

	--Arthur Corliss
	  Bolverk's Lair -- http://www.odinicfoundation.org/arthur/
	  "Live Free or Die, the Only Way to Live" -- NH State Motto