Not bad for a first program ... here is a less redundant version in the interest of helping you learn more:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my $beer = abs shift || 99;

print how_many($beer), ",\n",
   how_many($beer), ".\n",
   "Take one down, pass it around,\n",
   how_many(--$beer), ".\n\n"
while $beer;

sub how_many {
   my $numb = shift;
   return $numb 
      . ' bottle' 
      . ($numb == 1 ? '' : 's')
      . ' of beer on the wall'
   ;
}
[download]

Instead of asking the user for the number of beers *hic*, the code instead gets the number as a command line argument. If no argument is supplied, it instead uses a default value of 99. Also, it counts down until $beer is a false value instead of until $beer is 0 - hence, we have to take the absolute value of that command line argument lest the user give us a negative value and spin us off into an infinite loop. This version also uses a subroutine and a ternary operator (expr ? true : false), which is just a fancy if-else that is used to avoid spouting out '1 bottles'.

Keep on coding! :)

UPDATE: oops, you are correct mystik - and yes, my vision was blurry last night! :D (typo corrected)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

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