(not really a perl thing, but...)

just fixing the one error that the compiler spat out was often shortsighted, as there could easily be more examples of the same error in other locations, or that error could have been caused by an earlier error, or perhaps a more fundamental logic problem.

I have to disagree on that one, the first lesson I learned the hard way in my first CS class was not to get bogged down by compiler errors. The prof had given us some C code, and our assignment consisted of two parts:

1. fix the code so it compiled and ran
2. modifiy it so it did something slightly different.

As provided, the code generated about 42 compiler errors/warnings ... people (like me) who tried to fix more then one error at a time, or fix the later errors first, spent forever on the assignment. Had we started at the first error, and then recompiled, about 3/4s of the errors went away. Fixing the next (now first) errors made the rest go away.

Moral: start at the begining, and proceed in sequence. At each step make sure that what you've done has fixed the first bug, and reduced the total number of bugs.

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