Text::Starfish 1.06

Text::Starfish.pm and starfish is a Perl-based System for Text-Embedded Programming and Preprocessing.

SYNOPSIS

starfish [ -o=outputfile ] [ -e=initialcode ] [ -replace ] [ -mode=mode ] file...
where files usually contain some Perl code, delimited by < ? and ! >. To produce output to be inserted into the file, use variable $O or function echo.

(The documentation is probably not up to date.)

Starfish is a system for Perl-based text-embedded programming and preprocessing, which relies on a unifying regular expression rewriting methodology. If you know Perl and php, you probably know the basic idea: embed Perl code inside the text, execute it is some way, and interleave the output with the text. Very similar projects exist and some of them are listed in "SEE ALSO". Starfish is, however, unique in several ways. One important difference between starfish and similar programs (e.g. php) is that the output does not necessarily replace the code, but it follows the code by default. It is attempted with Starfish to provide a universal text-embedded programming language, which can be used with different types of textual files.

There are two files in this package: a module (Starfish.pm) and a small script (starfish) that provides a command-line interface to the module. The options for the script are described in subsection ""starfish_cmd list of file names and options"".

The earlier name of this module was SLePerl (Something Like ePerl), but it was changed it to starfish -- sounds better and easier to type. One option was `oyster, but some people are thinking about using it for Perl beans, and there is a (yet another) Perl module for embedded Perl Text::Oyster, so it was not used.
The idea with the `starfish name is: the Perl code is embedded into a text, so the text is equivalent to a shellfish containing pearls. A starfish comes by and eats the shellfish... Unlike a natural starfish, this starfish is interested in pearls and does not normally touch most of the surrounding meat.