#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

print 'What string would you like to twiddle? ';
chomp(my $twiddle = <STDIN>);

my $string;
my $oldString = "";
my $totallen = length($twiddle);
my @t = split(//, $twiddle);

for (0..$#t) {
    $string = shift(@t);
    print $oldString;
    for(my $i = 0; $i < (2*($totallen - length($oldString))-1); $i++)
    {
   	 print $string;
    }

    print (scalar reverse $oldString);
    print "\n"; # up
    $oldString .=$string;
}

while ($oldString) { 
    chop($oldString);
    $string = substr($oldString, (length($oldString)-1));    
    print $oldString; # print the first part o' the string (minus the last character)
    for(my $i = 0; $i < (2*($totallen - length($oldString))-1); $i++)
    {
   	 print $string; #print each 'last' character up there enough times to make the square
    }
    print (scalar reverse $oldString);# print the last part o' the string (minus the first character)
    print "\n";
}