Hero Zzyzzx said: You could declare the variables as globals...but this is bad programming practice generally, as I understand it. (why is this? Is it due strictly to memory usage?)

You answered your own question as to why globals are bad, when you said You can reuse the [code] elsewhere, 'cuz you know exactly what goes in and what comes out. It has to do with modularity of code. It's a lot easier to make everything global and share data around indiscriminantly, but maintaining such code can be hellish.

Perl, more than any other language I've used, gives you the flexibility to 'get stupid.' That's what makes Perl so great, sometimes you just need to get something done, and its easier and faster to do it if you do it 'the wrong way'.

TGI says moo