Update File::Spec advice in perlport.

Eighteen years ago, with Mac OS Classic in full swing and Unix
emulation on VMS spotty or non-existent, it made some sense to
reach for File::Spec sooner rather than later.  This is no longer
sound advice, so attempt to describe succinctly how things
actually work now, fix the broken examples, and drop the ancient
history of the File::Spec module.

1 files changed, 14 insertions, 14 deletions

diff --git a/pod/perlport.pod b/pod/perlport.pod
index 464d144571..35a8591543 100644
--- a/pod/perlport.pod
+++ b/pod/perlport.pod
@@ -290,23 +290,23 @@ a directory) are the Unix ones.  The various Unix/POSIX compatibility
 layers usually try to make interfaces like C<chmod()> work, but sometimes
 there simply is no good mapping.
 
-If all this is intimidating, have no (well, maybe only a little)
-fear.  There are modules that can help.  The C<File::Spec> modules
-provide methods to do the Right Thing on whatever platform happens
-to be running the program.
+The C<File::Spec> modules provide methods to manipulate path
+specifications and return the results in native format for each
+platform.  This is often unnecessary as Unix-style paths are
+understood by Perl on every supported platform, but if you need to
+produce native paths for a native utility that does not understand
+Unix syntax, or if you are operating on paths or path components
+in unknown (and thus possibly native) syntax, C<File::Spec> is
+your friend.  Here are two brief examples:
 
     use File::Spec::Functions;
     chdir(updir());        # go up one directory
-    my $file = catfile(curdir(), 'temp', 'file.txt');
-    # on Unix and Win32, './temp/file.txt'
-    # on Mac OS Classic, ':temp:file.txt'
-    # on VMS, '[.temp]file.txt'
-
-C<File::Spec> is available in the standard distribution as of version
-5.004_05.  C<File::Spec::Functions> is only in C<File::Spec> 0.7 and later,
-and some versions of Perl come with version 0.6.  If C<File::Spec>
-is not updated to 0.7 or later, you must use the object-oriented
-interface from C<File::Spec> (or upgrade C<File::Spec>).
+
+    # Concatenate a path from its components
+    my $file = catfile(updir(), 'temp', 'file.txt');
+    # on Unix:    '../temp/file.txt'
+    # on Win32:   '..\temp\file.txt'
+    # on VMS:     '[-.temp]file.txt'
 
 In general, production code should not have file paths hardcoded.
 Making them user-supplied or read from a configuration file is