If you didn't want to die, and didn't want to use merlyn's example, you could always "warn" instead of die... ex
open(INPUT, "input.txt") or
warn("Could not open file input.txt $!\n");
Also, note that on the open(), the file is "input.txt" and not ">input.txt" as this will open the file for writing, destroying anything that might already be in the file and would only die or warn if the file could not be created (low disk space, permissions, etc).
One last thing, what's the difference between or and || in die or warn statements? I know one is numeric and the other string, but as far as usage in this example, is there a difference or purely syntatic sugar?
Thanks
--
Ben
"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart."