#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

open (IN,"blah.file")||die ("Failed to open file blah.file\n$!");
open (OUT,"blah.file.nospace")||die("Failed to open file blah.file.out for writing\n$!");

my $count=0;

while (<IN>) {
    chomp $_;
    if ($_=~m/^$/g) {
        $count++;
    } else {
        print OUT "$_\n";
    }
}

close IN;
close OUT;

print 'Deleted '."$count".' blank lines'."\n";

exit (0);

##</code><code>##

if ($_=~m/^$/g) {

##</code><code>##

if ($_=~m/^\s*$/g) {