[Pdx-pm] PPI fails to handle (evil) prototypes

Randal L. Schwartz merlyn at stonehenge.com
Wed Aug 10 20:06:18 PDT 2005


Just because I thought it was time to get to beer, I stopped asking
the important questions...

for a further illustration of what I was referencing, see
<http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=44722>.

Basically, once you permit Prototypes, you can no longer "lex" Perl in
absence of prototype awareness.  And if those prototypes are outside
the current file, you can never accurately determine tokens, and
therefore statements, and therefore comments and pod, without also
looking outside the file.

Hence, PPI will always, at best, be "close".  And for you personally,
maybe "close enough".  But PPI can never know when it gets it wrong,
and thus can never tell you either.  You have to have some sort of
independent verification that PPI has not mangled your program.

-- 
Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
<merlyn at stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/>
Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.
See PerlTraining.Stonehenge.com for onsite and open-enrollment Perl training!


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