Re: pod bugs

[Ilya Zakharevich <ilya@math.ohio-state.edu>]

Tom Christiansen writes:
> 
> >It was definitely supposed to be /^\s*$/ ('*' and not '+') because
> >that is what actually appears in the code; and the term "blank line"
> >from the perlpod(1) pages is apparently open to interpretation (some
> >regard a "blank line" as different from an "empty line" as different
> >from who knows what else).
> 
> Only if you want a wrong interpretation. :-)
> 
> Pod is paragraph-based.  Perl, emboddied its notion of what $/=''
> means, considers a paragraph to be a chunk of text that ends with
> two or more consecutive newlines.  Putting something between those
> newlines renders it no longer the end of the paragraph.
> 
> Yes, I know this is idiot-prone.   Idiots screw it up all the time.
> But that's what $/='' means, and that's what a paragraph means in
> Perl.

There is some usefullness in a qr/\n{2,}/-delimited text, and this is
why Perl has a builtin $/ = ''.  However, the fact that this shortcut
exists does not mean that we should push qr/\n{2,}/-delimited format
down the people throats.

This format does not make a lot of sense for files produced
interactively.  If it hurts when you use $/='' to parse POD, do not do
it.

Ilya

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References to:

Tom Christiansen <tchrist@chthon.perl.com>

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