Thanks for the tip marto, when I run pp -x -o my_name.exe my_script.pl it runs the script in my command line output and then ultimately the .exe does work (even with every use on one line). I'll take that advice about the -x switch for pp in the future.
I didn't even know the .exe files created could be extracted like zip files, though I'm not sure I'm equipped with the know-how to go about debugging the differences and figuring out why one works over the other.
This isn't a crucial issue or anything since I did figure out a way to make it work (now I have two ways thanks to your -x suggestion), it just made me turn my head sideways with a funny look that simply adding the newline fixed the problem... very odd to me, since I wouldn't have thought that should matter at all.
Just another Perl hooker - But the purist monks keep telling me I should do it for love, not money.