CGI ponderings

Tom Christiansen (tchrist@mox.perl.com)
Fri, 16 Jun 95 09:29:03 MDT 

I was wondering whether a couple other CGI modules should be 
supplied.  One would capture errors and warnings.  Here's
what I've been putting at the top of my scripts:
       
    use CGI::Base;
    use CGI::Request;
    BEGIN { 

	CGI::Base::LogFile("/usr/local/etc/httpd/logs/mxperl.log");

	$ADMIN = 'tchrist@mox.perl.com';

	$SIG{__DIE__} = sub {
	    print "<HR><STRONG>";
	    print "<H1>FATAL ERROR</H1>\n";
	    print "Unexpected Fatal Error in $0:";
	    print "<PRE>@_</PRE></STRONG>\n";
	    print "<HR>Please send mail to $ADMIN for help.\n";
	    die "FATAL!! @_";
	};      

	$SIG{__WARN__} = sub {
	    print "<HR><STRONG>"; 
	    print "<PRE>WARNING: @_</PRE></STRONG>\n";
	    warn "WARNING!! @_";
	}; 

	SendHeaders();
    }   

The other would save punctation, allowing you to write things
like this:
    
    if (@user_query) {
        H2 "User Query";
        DLstart;
        DT;
            print "You want me to execute the following query:";
        DD; 
            P;   
            start("CODE");
                print join " and ", @user_query;
            end("CODE");
        DLend;
    } else {
        print "What don't you want a user query?";
    }   

Here's a trivial partial implementation :

    sub bracket { print "<$_[0]>\n" }
		
    sub HR { bracket "HR"; }
    sub P { bracket "P"; }
    sub BR { bracket "BR"; }
    sub LI { bracket "LI"; }
    sub DD { bracket "DD"; }
    sub DT { bracket "DT"; }

    sub start { bracket ($_[0]) }
    sub end { bracket ("/$_[0]") }
	
    sub bracket_pair {
	my($name, $value) = @_;
	start($name);
	print $value, "\n";
	end($name);
    }
	
    sub H1 { bracket_pair("H1", "@_") }
    sub H2 { HR(); bracket_pair("H2", "@_") }

    sub ULstart { start("UL") }
    sub ULend { end("UL") } 
    sub DLstart { start("DL") }
    sub DLend { end("DL") }
    sub OLstart { start("OL") }
    sub OLend { end("OL") }

Have these two things been done before and did I just miss it?  
Should they be?  What should the modules be named?   

--tom