Re: HTML.pm future

Gisle Aas (aas@sn.no)
Fri, 01 Dec 1995 17:09:30 +0100


I was too busy to answer any of this last week.

In <v02120d01acdd0eb764e9@[204.156.156.16]> M. Hedlund wrote:
> >With Marc's newly-released CGI::[Response], the time has come to clean up
> >the CGI:: modules and make them more convenient to use.  I'd like to
> >move the sticky form stuff to HTML::Form, as you recommend.  However,
> >I'm uncertain whether to base it on Greg's HTML.pm or the HTML modules
> >that come with the LWP package.  Can anyone here comment on the
> >relative merits of each?
> 
> I was wondering about this too.  Maybe Gisle is the best person to answer
> this -- Gisle, why did you decide to start work on new modules?  Was Greg's
> insufficient for your purposes?

I was in need for a HTML parser.  Greg's module did not look like a good 
stating point to me at that time.  I started up with a very simple 
HTML::Element class that the parser routine would build a syntax tree with.  
As time passed this class got a more complicated and more and more of the 
parser routines ended up as methods in the HTML::Element class.  Today it has 
several things in common with the HTML::Base class.

My primary purpose was not to generate HTML code, but with the HTML::AsSubs 
hack that was added this became possible too.  I am not really that happy with 
the output generated by the asHTML() method, but it is close to being useful.

I think I would have to study HTML::Base closer before I comment any more on 
this.

-- 
Gisle Aas                               <aas@oslonett.no>
Schibsted Nett AS                       http://www.oslonett.no/home/aas/