Uh, no, you can't print a "backspace" to an html text area. The best you could do is some form of javascript, which I won't get in to here.

As for your second question, the if BLOCK form is the canoical and the best way to write that, but if it really offends your eyes you could try something like:  print "foo" and $count = 0 if ( cond ) or something similar. Of course, that won't set $count to 0 if the print fails, which might be a feature.