Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!iwarp.intel.com!news
From: merlyn@iwarp.intel.com (Randal Schwartz)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: quasi-bug
Message-ID: <1990Mar28.180657.22785@iwarp.intel.com>
Date: 28 Mar 90 18:06:57 GMT
References: <1121@etnibsd.UUCP> <15290@bfmny0.UU.NET> <Etr4*$3@cs.psu.edu>
Sender: news@iwarp.intel.com
Reply-To: merlyn@iwarp.intel.com (Randal Schwartz)
Organization: Stonehenge; netaccess via Intel, Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Lines: 34
In-Reply-To: flee@shire.cs.psu.edu (Felix Lee)

In article <Etr4*$3@cs.psu.edu>, flee@shire (Felix Lee) writes:
| Perl is kinda dangerous in many ways.

s/kinda //; # :-)

| I once wanted to parse multiple '-e expr' and '-f file' options the
| way 'sed' does, with or without a space between the option and the
| argument.  Without much thought, I wrote the following, which handles
| the optional space in a single statement:
| 	while ($_ = shift) {
| 		&expression($1 || shift), next if (/^-e(.*)$/);
| 		&file($1 || shift), next if (/^-f(.*)$/);
| 		# ...
| 	}
| Unfortunately, this doesn't work properly for '-e0', '-f0', or '0'.
| 
| If strings weren't converted to numbers in boolean contexts . . .

while ($_ = shift) {
	&expression(length ? $_ : shift), next if s/^-e//;
	&file(length ? $_ : shift), next if s/^-f//;
	# ...

}

I just came up with this while replying.  Lemme know if you like it.
I like it so far... it looks pretty clean and direct.

$_ = "Just a sed user,";s/a/another/;s/sed/Perl/;s/user/hacker/;print
-- 
/=Randal L. Schwartz, Stonehenge Consulting Services (503)777-0095 ==========\
| on contract to Intel's iWarp project, Beaverton, Oregon, USA, Sol III      |
| merlyn@iwarp.intel.com ...!any-MX-mailer-like-uunet!iwarp.intel.com!merlyn |
\=Cute Quote: "Welcome to Portland, Oregon, home of the California Raisins!"=/