#!/bin/perl
use v5.10;

  say "Please enter a few lines of text. Press crtl-D when finished";
  @text_lines = <STDIN>;
  chomp($text_lines);
  say "Please enter the width of the column: ";
  $column = <STDIN>;
  $ruler = "1234567890";
  say "$ruler" x $column;

  foreach (@text_lines) {
    #printf "%${column}s\n", $_;
    printf  "%${column}s\n", $_;      
  }