AcidHawk and others,

I'd certainly have to agree on the use strict; and -w points but there is so much more available here than these, admittedly highly useful, points.

Monks (in general) are helpful but the best lead you to where you need to be to find the relevant knowledge rather than just give it to you on a plate. I find this probably the best way of learning as this helps me to understand what is going on rather than simply to know it.

At the moment I am working on making my Perl more fluent in nature; eliminating intermediate, temporary values and trying to string things together into more of a coherent process and less of a lurching, stepwise method. One comment which helped me was Merlyn's exhortation to do away with intermediate variables if you could not in good conscience give them a name which really reflected their purpose as this tends to suggest that they aren't needed.

PM has definitely helped to develop my Perl from baby talk into its current state of adolescence and hopefully to adulthood at some point in the future.

Elgon

"Rule #17 of Travel: Never try and score dope off Hassidic Jews while under the impression that they are Rastafarians."
       - Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar