will produce the following combinations from the string 'convert perl to-python'

Assuming you typoed:

#! perl -slw
use strict;
use Algorithm::Combinatorics qw[ variations_with_repetition ];

sub zip {
    my( $r1, $r2 ) = @_;
    my $n = @$r1 > @$r2 ? $#{$r1} : $#{$r2};
    map{ ( $r1->[ $_ ] // '', $r2->[ $_ ] // '' ) } 0 .. $n;
}

sub dashedCombos {
    my @words = split ' ', shift;

    map { join '', zip( \@words, $_ ) } variations_with_repetition( [ 
+' ', '-' ], $#words );
}

print for dashedCombos( 'convert perl to python' );

__END__
C:\test>1137970
convert perl to python
convert perl to-python
convert perl-to python
convert perl-to-python
convert-perl to python
convert-perl to-python
convert-perl-to python
convert-perl-to-python
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