Did you try
PDF::OCR::Thorough? It claims to be able to extract text from all types of PDF-files. I did not try it yet (as I did not have the tesseract-OCR-engine installed).
CountZero
A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James
