With regard to the debugging print statements, here's something I do that works very well for me in situations like this. First, at the top of the file, set a debug flag:

$debug = 1;
[download]

Then I make a debug subroutine:

sub Debug {
    if ( $debug ) {
        my $msg = shift;
        print $msg, "\n";
    }
}
[download]

Then throughout the code, I drop in things like:

Debug( "Entering calculation phase." );
Debug( "Pre-calculation value of \$x: $x" );
...
Debug( "Leaving calculation phase." );
Debug( "Post-calculation value of \$x: $x" );
[download]

This allows me to check values of just about anything, at any point in execution. Then when you're done debugging, you just set $debug to zero and you're done. Personally, I usually leave the debug code in place, in case I ever need to come back and fiddle with the program and need to debug it again.

HTH
___________________
Kurt

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.