Re: General style advice requested

[ikegami]

$cycle_length being declared globally is not acceptable. I would declare $first and $second in the loop, but they're acceptable where they are.

The other issue it's very hard to spot the loop in your sub. May I recommend

for (;;) {       # I read this as "for ever"
   ...
}

or the more popular

while (1) {
   ...
}