To some degree, these types of design issues are independent of the programming language. Maybe reading some general OOP or data structures texts would be helpful. (Regarding data structures: Mastering Algorithms with Perl has lots of good info about using data stuctures in Perl effectively.)

But in Perl, there are so many ways to do it and they all change depending on so many different aspects of your program, the data structures you choose, the user interface you are using, the storage methods available. I don't get a feeling of satisfaction when I've finished a program. I sit in front of my screen, turning bits of the code around in my mind, because I'm not sure I've done it the best way. Even when it's finished, it's still not done.

Learning the Perl idioms and the tradeoffs among the WTDI should help resolve some of those nagging doubts. I would highly recommend The Perl Cookbook and Effective Perl Programming. A careful study of these books (not just cut-n-pasting :-) will give you a great feel for what good advanced perl looks like and why.

laughingboy