spek@scelia ~/scratch $ perl des.pl display ------ sub display { my $num = shift; print "$num\n"; } two ------ sub two { return one(_helper(shift)); } three ------ sub three { return two(shift); } one ------ sub one { my $num = calc(shift); display($num); } calc ------ sub calc { my $num = shift; return $num ** 3; } _helper ------ sub _helper { my $num = shift; return ++$num; }