On Jul 26, 2009, at 11:16 AM, Randal L. Schwartz wrote:

>>>>>> "Klaus" == Klaus D Witzel <klaus.witzel at cobss.com> writes:
>
>>> ... some implementation like Ruby's 'Mechanize' library?
>
> Klaus> Interesting, why would one use 'Mechanize', except for  
> running a http-Spam
> Klaus> bot ? ;)
>
> If Ruby's Mechanize is like Perl's WWW::Mechanize (my guess), then  
> the primary
> use is to test web sites from the HTTP level, a very legitimate usage.

There are lots of things you can do with it besides spamming. Testing  
is one, as Randal pointed out. Logging into a different service for  
aggregation, think mint.com or any number of services that aggregate  
your social networking sites. Doing mashups, like any number of  
datasets + google maps. Or, in the corporation, scraping that pesky  
legacy system that isn't going to be replaced anytime soon. I've also  
used it to put a skin over a site with a really, I mean really, crappy  
interface for a friend.

>
>
> google "randal schwartz perl mechanize" for a couple of columns
> I did on that.

Thanks! Ruby's Mechanize is very much like Perl's Mechanize. I'll  
check it out.

DZ