I can then run my transforms by copying the source info into the clipboard, hit the magic key, watch the black box of a command prompt flicker in and out of view (sometimes takes a second on NT, much quicker on Win2K), then paste the results.

If you're running with ActiveState perl, there's probably a registry entries for *.wsf files (look in the examples directory of perl). With the wsf you can get rid of the cmd box. Simply do:

<Job ID="MyClipCode">
<script language=PerlScript>
  
    # Your perl code here

</script>
</Job>
[download]

and voila! (but now strict and warning wont display too much help). update: i wrecked the whole thing with the code tags and pressed submit instead of preview... :o)