In the actual script none of the data is hard coded. All the input gets put into the interface (text boxes, drop downs etc) and then that data is processed and used to populate the hashes/html table/etc.

None of that extra stuff was a major contributor to the speed problem however, so I kept the perl/tk stuff as simple as possible in my example.

If the speed is all just overhead and there's nothing for it than I'll have to start looking at other options. The problem seems to be output related more than anything. It's strange, but I've noticed that if I write the output to a plain text file and just open it with notepad it does seem a bit faster. I may have to settle with that, but I'd lose a lot in the formatting/spacing department.

Eminently reasonable. Seems sensible!

But your distinction between a plain text file and the .html output of your OP puzzles me again, as any difference should be negligible: the .html source is, to all intents and purposes as far as writing the file is concerned, a "plain text file."

Or does your actual script open a browser after writing the output? That, of course, would add a bit more overhead. In that case, you cantrim the rendering time by assigning width to table and the ten tds.

In any case, it may be useful to profile your actual script: see http://search.cpan.org/~timb/Devel-NYTProf-2.10/lib/Devel/NYTProf.pm.

OTOH, it may be even more useful to await better answers from Tk gurus here.

But your distinction between a plain text file and the .html output of your OP puzzles me again, as any difference should be negligible: the .html source is, to all intents and purposes as far as writing the file is concerned, a "plain text file."

I know what you mean. In the end I suspect that it was just because when I tried sending the output as plain text it greatly reduced the number of lines I sent out. All the HTMLSTUFF was removed and my do_this sub was reduced to a few lines.

sub do_this() {
open FILE, "> $filename" or die "ERROR WRITTING FILE: $filename\nSyste
+m reported $!";


print FILE "\n"; 
foreach (sort keys(%stuff1) ) { print FILE "$stuff1{$_} | ";}
print FILE "\n"; 
foreach (sort keys(%stuff2) ) { print FILE "$stuff2{$_} | ";}


close FILE;
system "start /b $filename";
}
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