in reply to START PERL
HOW TO WRITE PROGRAMS IN ITI think that's the heart of your problem. Perl isn't an application you start and then you're doing things in it - it's not a game. First you write a program, using whatever means you find most comfortable, and only then you start Perl, giving it the program you wrote to run. And Perl stops once it's done running your program.
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Seekers of Perl Wisdom