for ( @status ) {
        my $pass     = 0;
        chomp;

        # eliminate that nasty terminator! :)
        $_ =~ s/\0//;

        # Ignore the stuff that comes from this
        # command for now.  Maybe later I will
        # use this information for something but
        # I will wait until a more mature release
        # of this code.

        if ( $watch ) {
            
            # I know this next section looks obfuscated
            # but actually, it was the easiest way for me
            # to accomplish my task here.
            # This block takes data that looks like this:
            #
            # player name     number    number
            #     IPaddr  number number       <- one record
            # player name     number    number
            #     IPaddr  number number       <- another record
            #
            # and parses out just the name per record
            # so that the array is now propagated with
            # player name  <- from reocrd 1
            # player name  <- from record 2
            # etc.
            # NOTE to self: You will probably need to get
            # the IP address at some point here!
            
            $pass = 1
                      if $pass == 0;
            $pass = 2,   $_ =~ s/( .*).*// 
                      if $pass;
            $pass = 1    # place regex to extract IP here
                      if $pass == 2;
            push( @player_info, $_ )
                      if $_;
        }
        # start counting after we see the "-"'s
        $watch = 1 if ( /-/ );
    }

    if ( $#player_info >= 0 ) {
             return($#player_info + 1);
    } else {
         return(0);
    }
}
[download]

$pass = 1
        if $pass == 0;
$pass = 2,   $_ =~ s/( .*).*// 
        if $pass;
$pass = 1    # place regex to extract IP here
        if $pass == 2;
 push( @player_info, $_ )
        if $_;
[download]

To me this seemed to be a much simpler block of code to write while at the same time not too difficult to understand what it was doing. Consider the alternative:

A rough estimation of the translation of the above code (untested)...

if ( $pass == 0 ) {
    $pass = 1;
} elsif ( $pass ) {
    $pass = 2;
    $_ =~ s/( .*).*//;
} elsif ( $pass == 2 ) {
    $pass = 1;
}

if ( $_ ) {
    push( @player_info, $_ );
}
[download]

I'd be curious to know what others think.
I wonder if I could have used the flip-flop operator here.

----------
- Jim