Perl::Critic::Policy::Documentation::ProhibitVerbatimMarkup - unexpanded C<> etc markup in POD verbatim paras

This policy is part of the Perl::Critic::Pulp|Perl::Critic::Pulp addon. It reports POD verbatim paragraphs which contain markup like B<> or C<>. That markup will appear literally in the formatted output where you may have meant fontification.

    =head1 SOME THING

    Paragraph of text introducing an example,

        # call the C<foo> function      # bad
        &foo();

This is purely cosmetic so this policy is low priority and under the "cosmetic" theme (see POLICY THEMES in Perl::Critic). Normally it means one of two things,

• You wanted markup -- it should be a plain paragraph not a verbatim indented one. An =over can be used for indentation if desired.
• You wanted verbatim -- replace the markup with an ascii approximation like func() or even *bold* or _underline_.

Don't forget a verbatim paragraph extends to the next blank line and includes unindented lines until then (see Pod Definitions in perlpodspec). If you forget the blank the verbatimness continues

    =pod

        $some->sample;
        code();
    And this was I<meant> to be plain text.    # bad

The check for markup is unsophisticated. Any of the POD specified "I<" "C<" etc is taken to be markup, plus "J<" of Pod::MultiLang.

    I<       # bad
    B<       # bad
    C<       # bad
    L<       # bad
    E<       # bad
    F<       # bad
    S<       # bad
    X<       # bad
    Z<       # bad
    J<       # bad, for Pod::MultiLang

It's possible a < might be something mathematical like "X<Y", but in practice spaces "X < Y" or lower case letters are more common and are ok.

Sample debugger output is exempted. It's uncommon, but not likely to have intended B<> bold.

    DB<123> dump b        # ok

If a verbatim paragraph is showing how to write POD markup then you can add an =for to tell ProhibitVerbatimMarkup to allow it. This happens most often in documentation for modules which themselves operate on POD markup.

    =for ProhibitVerbatimMarkup allow next

        blah blah E<gt> etc

    =for ProhibitVerbatimMarkup allow next 2

        Two verbatims of C<code>

        or B<bold> etc

The usual no critic

    ## no critic (ProhibitVerbatimMarkup)

works too, but if the POD is after an __END__ token then Perl::Critic 1.112 is required, and the annotation must be before the __END__. An =for has the advantage of being with the exception.

As always if you don't care at all about this at all then disable ProhibitVerbatimMarkup from your .perlcriticrc in the usual way (see CONFIGURATION in Perl::Critic),

    [-Documentation::ProhibitVerbatimMarkup]

Perl::Critic::Pulp, Perl::Critic, Perl::Critic::Policy::Documentation::ProhibitBadAproposMarkup, Perl::Critic::Policy::Documentation::RequireEndBeforeLastPod

http://user42.tuxfamily.org/perl-critic-pulp/index.html

Copyright 2010, 2011 Kevin Ryde

Perl-Critic-Pulp is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any later version.

Perl-Critic-Pulp is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Perl-Critic-Pulp. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.