This thread caused me to search for "perl debugger" in the hope that I could gain access to memory usage and etc. But the version of perl I'm using (ActivePerl for Windows) wasn't built with -DDEBUGGING.

Anyway I did discover Devel::Size ( http://search.cpan.org/search?query=devel%3A%3Asize&mode=module ) for finding the memory usage of Perl variables. Maybe the OP will find it useful for comparing alternatives.

I also learned about "Debugging Perl Memory Usage" ( http://perldoc.perl.org/perldebguts.html#Debugging-Perl-Memory-Usage )