=head1 NAME common::sense - save a tree AND a kitten, use common::sense! =head1 SYNOPSIS use common::sense; # roughly the same as, with much lower memory usage: # # use strict qw(vars subs); # use feature qw(say state switch); # no warnings; =head1 DESCRIPTION This module implements some sane defaults for Perl programs, as defined by two typical (or not so typical - use your common sense) specimens of Perl coders. =over 4 =item no warnings The dreaded warnings. Even worse, the horribly dreaded C<-w> switch. Even though we don't care if other people use warnings (and certainly there are useful ones), a lot of warnings simply go against the spirit of Perl, most prominently, the warnings related to C. There is nothing wrong with C: it has well-defined semantics, it is useful, and spitting out warnings you never asked for is just evil. So every module needs C to avoid somebody accidentally using C<-w> and forcing his bad standards on our code. No will do. Funnily enough, L explicitly mentions C<-w> (and not in a favourable way), but standard utilities, such as L, or MakeMaker when running C enable them blindly. =item use strict qw(subs vars) Using C is definitely common sense, but C definitely overshoots it's usefulness. After almost two decades of Perl hacking, we decided that it does more harm than being useful. Specifically, constructs like these: @{ $var->[0] } Must be written like this (or similarly), when C is in scope, and C<$var> can legally be C: @{ $var->[0] || [] } This is annoying, and doesn't shield against obvious mistakes such as using C<"">, so one would even have to write: @{ defined $var->[0] ? $var->[0] : [] } ... which nobody with a bit of common sense would consider writing. Curiously enough, sometimes, perl is not so strict, as this works even with C in scope: for (@{ $var->[0] }) { ... If that isnt hipocrasy! And all that from a mere program! =item use feature qw(say state given) We found it annoying that we always have to enable extra features. If something breaks because it didn't anticipate future changes, so be it. 5.10 broke almost all our XS modules and nobody cared either - and few modules that are no longer maintained work with newer versions of Perl, regardless of use feature. If your code isn't alive, it's dead, jim. =item much less memory Just using all those pragmas together waste I<< B<776> kilobytes >> of precious memory in my perl, for I, which on our machines, is a lot. In comparison, this module only uses I<< B >> kilobytes (I even had to write it out so it looks like more) of memory on the same platform. The money/time/effort/electricity invested in these gigabytes (probably petabytes globally!) of wasted memory could easily save 42 trees, and a kitten! =cut package common::sense; our $VERSION = '0.03'; sub import { # no warnings ${^WARNING_BITS} ^= ${^WARNING_BITS}; # use strict vars subs $^H |= 0x00000600; # use feature $^H{feature_switch} = $^H{feature_say} = $^H{feature_state} = 1; } 1; =back =head1 THERE IS NO 'no common::sense'!!!! !!!! !! This module doesn't offer an unimport. First of all, it wastes even more memory, second, and more importantly, who with even a bit of common sense would want no common sense? =head1 STABILITY AND FUTURE VERSIONS Future versions might change just about everything in this module. We might test our modules and upload new ones working with newer versions of this module, and leave you standing in the rain because we didn't tell you. Most likely, we will pick a few useful warnings, instead of just disabling all of them. And maybe we will load some nifty modules that try to emulate C or so with perls older than 5.10 (this module, of course, should work with older perl versions - supporting 5.8 for example is just common sense at this time. Maybe not in the future, but of course you can trust our common sense). =head1 AUTHOR Marc Lehmann http://home.schmorp.de/ Robin Redeker, "". =cut