sub readlines {
  my ($fh, $count) = @_;
  my @gulp;
  push @gulp, scalar <$fh>
    while $count-- and  ! eof $fh;
  return @gulp;
}
 
while ( @lines = readlines(DATA,3) ) {
  print @lines,"----\n";
}
 
__DATA__
a
b  
c 
d
e

##</code><code>##

a
b  
c 
----
d
e
----

##</code><code>##

sub readlines {
  my ($fh, $count) = @_;
  my @gulp;
  while (<$fh>) {
    push @gulp,$_;
    last unless --$count;
  }
  return @gulp;
}