Dano utilities provided reusable Perl subroutines. Today, modern languages have standard libraries and package managers.
Utility Libraries
Central repository for Perl modules. Over 200,000 modules for every conceivable task. Production-tested, documented, and maintained.
Modern Perl web framework. Real-time web apps, built-in templates, JSON/XML handling, WebSockets. All the utilities you need.
Lightweight Perl web application framework. Simple, flexible, PSGI/Plack compatible. Great for REST APIs and web services.
Most common replacement for Perl CGI. Built-in functions for forms, files, cookies, sessions. Huge ecosystem via Composer.
Clean syntax, extensive standard library. Flask, Django for web. Great for scripting, automation, and web development.
JavaScript runtime for server-side. npm has 2M+ packages. Express, Fastify for web. Same language front and back.
| Dano Function | Modern PHP | Node.js |
|---|---|---|
| parse_form | $_POST, $_GET | req.body, req.query |
| lock/unlock | flock() | proper-lockfile |
| write_file | file_put_contents() | fs.writeFile() |
| html_header | header() + HTML | res.send() |
| set_cookie | setcookie() | res.cookie() |
| get_cookie | $_COOKIE | req.cookies |
| url_encode | urlencode() | encodeURIComponent() |
| html_encode | htmlspecialchars() | he.encode() |
<?php
// Form data (parse_form equivalent)
$name = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'name', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'email', FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);
// Write to file with locking (lock/write/unlock)
$fp = fopen('data.txt', 'a');
if (flock($fp, LOCK_EX)) {
fwrite($fp, "$name,$email\n");
flock($fp, LOCK_UN);
}
fclose($fp);
// Set cookie
setcookie('last_visit', date('Y-m-d'), time() + 86400*30);
// Output
echo "<h1>Thank you, " . htmlspecialchars($name) . "</h1>";Web apps: PHP, Python, or Node.js
Keep Perl: CPAN modules + Mojolicious
Scripting: Python or modern Perl