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From: schaefer@ogicse.ogc.edu (Barton E. Schaefer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Minor error in getopt.pl and getopts.pl
Message-ID: <6788@ogicse.ogc.edu>
Date: 22 Jan 90 16:23:31 GMT
Reply-To: schaefer@ogicse.UUCP (Barton E. Schaefer)
Organization: Oregon Graduate Institute (formerly OGC), Beaverton, OR
Lines: 25

I found a small problem with using "getopts.pl," which is also present
in "getopt.pl" and may affect some of the other perl library functions
(I haven't checked).  The problem is that references to $ARGV[0] clash
with resetting $[ = 1.  Sample program:

#! /usr/bin/perl
$[ = 1;
do 'getopts.pl';
Getopts("a:bc");
print "a is $opt_a, b is $opt_b, c is $opt_c\n";

I'm not sure what the correct general solution to this is.  For getopt
and getopts, it would be easy enough to refer to $ARGV[$[] everywhere.
But perhaps a better guideline is that all library functions should
use something like

    local($[) = 0;	# Enforce local subscripting conventions

(Would that work the way I think, Larry?  Or would it be necessary to
save, reset, and restore the global $[ ?)
-- 
Bart Schaefer     "Miserable miscreant!  Question MY integrity, will you?"
               "I have to see some *evidence* of it before I can question it."
                                                            -- Calvin & Hobbes
schaefer@cse.ogi.edu (used to be cse.ogc.edu)