This is a script I wrote to calculate how much fabric I need when making various quilt blocks. At the moment it's run from the command line, but I'd like to eventually get it so it can be run from a web page. That's where I really started to get frustrated. Alternately, a GUI might be sort of neat.

Anyway, I would be interested in receiving feedback on the script as it stands now. I have a vague feeling that perhaps there are better, cleaner ways to do much of what I've got, and I'd like to learn them.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

# How many fabrics are you using?

my $j;
my $number_of_fabrics;
print "How many fabrics are you using? \n";
chomp($number_of_fabrics = <STDIN>);
for ($j = 1; $j <= $number_of_fabrics; $j++) {

# How wide is the fabric you are using?

   my %fabric_width;
   my $fab_width;
   print "How wide is fabric $j? \n";
   chomp($fab_width = <STDIN>);
   $fabric_width{$j} = $fab_width - 2;
   print "To be safe, we'll use a width of $fabric_width{$j} for fabri
+c $j. \n";

# How many different shapes is a block made of?

   my $number_of_shapes;
   print "How many different shapes of fabric $j is a block made of? \
+n";
   chomp($number_of_shapes = <STDIN>);

# What are the dimensions of the shapes?

   my $i;
   my %width;
   my %height;
   my %shape;
   my $piece;
   for ($i = 1; $i <= $number_of_shapes; $i++) {
      my $shape_width;
      print "What is the width of shape $i? \n";
      chomp($shape_width = <STDIN>);
      $width{$i} = $shape_width;
      my $shape_height;
      print "What is the height of shape $i? \n";
      chomp($shape_height = <STDIN>);
      $height{$i} = $shape_height;
      $shape{$i} = $shape_width . "x" . $shape_height;
      }
   print "Shape dimensions: \n";
   foreach $i (keys (%shape)) {
      print "The dimensions of shape $i are $shape{$i}\n";
      }

# For each shape, how many can be made per yard of fabric?

   my $number_per_fabric_width_strip;
   my $strips_per_yard;
   my $number_per_yard;
   my $number_of_pieces;
   my %pieces;
   my $number_of_strips;
   my $strip_yardage;
   my $remainder;
   my $fabric_yardage;
   my $number_of_blocks;
   my $total_pieces;
   foreach $i (keys (%height)) {
      $number_per_fabric_width_strip = $fabric_width{$j} / ($height{$i
+});
      $number_per_fabric_width_strip = int $number_per_fabric_width_st
+rip;
      print "You can get $number_per_fabric_width_strip piece(s) of sh
+ape $i per
      $width{$i}\" strip of fabric $j.\n";
      $strips_per_yard = 36 / ($width{$i});
      $strips_per_yard = int $strips_per_yard;
      print "You can get $strips_per_yard $width{$i}\" strips per yard
+. \n";
      $number_per_yard = $number_per_fabric_width_strip * $strips_per_
+yard;
      print "You can get $number_per_yard of shape $i per yard of
      $fabric_width{$j}\" of fabric $j. \n";
      print "How many of shape $i do you need per block? \n";
      chomp($number_of_pieces = <STDIN>);
      $pieces{$i} = "$number_of_pieces";
      print "You need $number_of_pieces per block. \n";
      print "How many blocks are you making? \n";
      chomp($number_of_blocks = <STDIN>);
      print "You are making $number_of_blocks blocks. \n";
      $total_pieces = $number_of_pieces * $number_of_blocks;
      print "You need $total_pieces of shape $i. \n";
      if ($total_pieces <= $number_per_fabric_width_strip) {
         print "You will need one $width{$i}\" strip of fabric $j. \n"
+;
         }
      else {
         $number_of_strips = $total_pieces / $number_per_fabric_width_
+strip;
         $number_of_strips = int $number_of_strips;
         $remainder = $total_pieces % $number_per_fabric_width_strip;
         $strip_yardage= $number_of_strips * $width{$i};
         if ($remainder == 0) {
            print "You will need exactly $strip_yardage\". \n";
            }
         else {
            $fabric_yardage = $strip_yardage + $width{$i};
        print "You will need $fabric_yardage\" of fabric $j. The last 
+$width{$i}\" strip will have only $remainder pieces cut from it. \n";
        }
         }
      } 
   }
[download]

Thanks for any advice.