maybe Symbol (even in the core distribution) could be of help here

I'll try incorporating that at some point to see how it fares, it will certainly save on the variable munging trickery.
Update: on second thoughts, this won't save variable name munging at all as I still have to create a lexical variable to assign to the glob etc etc If only I could create my own temporary lexical scopes to declare them in, hmmm ...

I believe that things get nasty if you nest subs two levels deep (or deeper) - that's one thing I miss from Pascal.

Nope, that's the beauty of lexical subs - you can nest to your hearts content!

use Sub::Lexical;


## can't nest package level subs
sub foo {
    my $foovar = "in foo here\n";

    my sub bar {
        my $barvar = "in bar here\n";
        print "\$foovar = $foovar";

        my sub baz {
            my $bazvar = "in baz here\n";
            print "\$barvar = $barvar";
            my sub quux {

                my $quuxvar = "in quux here\n";
                print "\$bazvar = $bazvar";

                my sub ooh_this_is_deep {
                    my $ooh_this_is_deepvar = "in deep here\n";
                    print "\$otidv = $ooh_this_is_deepvar";
                }
                ooh_this_is_deep();
            }   # ooh_this_is_deep falls outta scope here
            quux();
        }   # quux falls outta scope here
        baz();
    }   # baz falls outta scope here
    bar();
}   # bar falls outta scope here
foo();

__output__

$foovar = in foo here
$barvar = in bar here
$bazvar = in baz here
$otidv = in deep here
[download]

The problem with nesting subs is explored here and this module fixes that issue to a degree by hiding by the nested subs as anonymous subs tied to lexicals variables, so you're not really nesting subs at all (but who's the wiser ? ;-)
HTH

_________
broquaint