Without any test data, it's hard to tell it this runs the same as your original, but...
my ($max, $cval, $inc_var, $sref, $d_or_b) =
($l == $k) ? ([$k,$lt], 0, undef, \@s, $b) :
($l < $k) ? ([$k,$lt], 2, \$j, \@s_rev, $d) :
([$l,$kt], 1, \$i, \@s, $b);
$sref->[$d_or_b+1] ||= $max->[0] - 2 if $max->[0] > 2;
$h = $s[$b] == 0 ? 0 : $s[$b]-1;
$s[$b1] = max(@$max);
$c = $cval;
$$inc_var++ if $inc_var;
$h = $c = 0 if ( $l==$k );
Update #1: Thanks choroba, colons fixed.
Update #2: Thanks choroba again for the test script template; minor adjustments, works now.
perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'
