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Postings from March 2000
On Wed, 22 Mar 2000, Robert Spier wrote: > The Expect.pm interface is similar to TCL's Expect interface (which I > have never used.), and while it takes a while to get used to it, and > the documentation is spread out through a few different files and > examples, it's not ``horrid'' Actually it is signficantly worse than the Expect in TCL. In particular Expect in TCL totally avoids the necessity of examining the return value of expect(). In Expect.pm the return value is suddenly the entire feedback mechanism! The author (Austin Schutz) has expressed a desire to see this change, but it didn't seem to me at the time that he had any intention of doing so. > But I've found that the interface is very easy to use in the simple > cases, and usable in more difficult cases. True. On the other hand, TCL's Expect is comfortable in all the cases I've put it to use in, so of which could qualify as difficult. See _Exploring Expect_ for copious details! If I ever have to automate a closed-source text-based application again I think my first step would be to update or replace Expect.pm. Will that day come? I'm not sure. The number of such apps is definitely dropping. -sam