Thanks davido, that's a wealth of information and suggestions. I even think I understand everything in the brian_d_foy writeup, at least until the last bit regarding objects. I've never diddled with the perl iternals, but what he describes doesn't seem overly complicated.

I may fiddle a bit and try some things as you suggested (I've never tried prompt either), and then decide if I want to change from my current subroutine kludge. Thanks again.