Docs::Site_SVD::Tie::FormA is a software version description (SVD) for the Tie::FormA program module.

The system is the Perl programming language software. As established by the Perl referenced documents, program modules, such the "Tie::Form" module, extends the Perl language.

The "Tie::Form" program module accesses a text database file in the very specific Form format and inherits generic database methods from the "DataPort::DataFile" module. The "Tie::Form" program module is a data source for the "DataPort::DataFile" module.

The Form format has improve flexability and performance over other text base formats such as the Comma Separated Variable (CSV) format.

The text format resembles as much as possible the standard hard copy forms. An example of a "DatatPort::FIleType::Form record follows:

manhood length: ________ ^
time spent in big house: _________ ^

what drugs do you use:
_________
_________

^

~-~
The : separates field names and field content. The ^ tags the end of a field and the ~-~ tags the end of the record. The separation sequences are escaped within the form by adding an extra character as follows:
sequence escaped
-------- --------
~-~ ~--~
~--~ ~---~
^ ^^
^^ ^^^
: :
:: :::

Since ~-~ never appears inside a record, Perl or any other Programming Language can very easily find the record separators just by ... well ... searching for it. The search for the end of field and end of field name are just a little bit more complicated. Search for a : or ^ all by itself. Escaping and unescaping is just adding one more :, ^, - or removing one of these characters.

The Form record looks very much like a hard copy form yet is very simple and straight forward for Perl or any other programming language to process.