testing non-modules

[Ofer Nave]

One issue I've always struggled with is how to properly test code that's 
not in the form of a module - in other words, scripts.  I use the usual 
hacky, temporary methods to test my code as I write it or when I find a 
bug (pring statements, commenting out things, etc), and occasionally the 
perl debugger.  But it's unclear to me how one could write formal tests 
against a script.

I've gone through 'fad' periods where I tried to write all code in 
modules (even though most of it wasn't reusable) and then have the 
script be a simple wrapper that processes command line args and calls 
the appropriate functions in the module, but the design never felt right.

<tangent>Incidentally, I've been toying with the idea of trying to make 
executable modules.  The file would have a .pm extension, be safe to 
load from other scripts, and provide a functional or OO interface to all 
functionality, but would also be executable, with a command-line 
interface.  This could be done by checking $0 to see if the program name 
is the module name.</tangent>

-ofer