[prog] Looking for a Perl module

Dan Richter daniel.richter at wimba.com
Wed Sep 24 11:59:33 EST 2003


I'm looking for a Perl module that does a certain thing that I can't really 
describe well enough in a single sentence. It's easier to explain by example.

I have a program that does tidying up (like correcting spelling) in HTML 
documents, but the tags keep getting in the way. It would be nice if there 
was a Perl module that allowed me to do something like this:

   my $replacer = Hypothetical::Class->new;
       # Replace HTML tags with something that
       # doesn't look like text at all.
   my $safe_html = $replacer->substitute("<.*?>", $html);
       # Now that the HTML tags are removed, we can
       # do this substitutions without changing
       # A HREF="http://...".
   $safe_html =~ s/http/HTTP/g;
       # Put back the parts we replaced.
   $html = $replacer->put_back($safe_html);

Obviously this is short on details, but I am convinced that it's feasible 
to do. Does anyone know of a module like this? (Don't tell me where I might 
find it because I've probably looked there already; tell me where you are 
reasonably sure I will find it.)

If there is no such module, I think I could write one, but there's no sense 
in writing it if it already exists. That's why I'm asking if anyone has 
already heard of something like this.

-- 
     You could effectively conclude [that] my service here
     at this podium would come to an abrupt end.
             - then White House spokesman Mike McCurry, asked by a
               reporter what he would do if he won the
               $100 million Powerball lottery. (He didn't win.)



More information about the Programming mailing list