You could use qw to cut down on typing and reduce clutter:

my @puzzle =
(
    [qw(r e l a e d b y)],
    [qw(e s c r e e n t)],
    [qw(m i o e i s h l)],
    [qw(i s l a t e r a)],
    [qw(t n u r c n n u)],
    [qw(r g m u a i h s)],
    [qw(o u b m t h a a)],
    [qw(m e o a n c c c)]
);
[download]

our @end = undef;

my @end;
[download]

Glad you liked it, and thanks for those bits of advice.

Hey, thanks for the comments, naturally I'd be interested in seeing another take at handling the problem, after all TIMTOWTDI. I'm working on an update for the program at the moment, and using a file to load the puzzle, and having command line options are both ideas that will make it in.

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

my @puzzle = qw/abcde fghij klmno pqrst uvwxy/;

@puzzle = make_puzzle(@puzzle);
print Dumper(\@puzzle);

sub make_puzzle{
    return map{[split //, $_]} @_;
}
[download]

Thanks for the subroutine, I think I will use that as part of the update I'm planning. As for using a prototype on the subroutine, I've always done it that way, but if this is considered incorrect or foolish, please do tell me.

Prototypes in Perl are very special. They are not --as many people expect-- a tool to check at compile-time or even run-time wether the parameters of your subroutine call are correct. Have a look at Gratuitous use of Perl Prototypes, it explains clearly why Perl "prototypes" are totally different from (for example) C "prototypes".

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

Description:

The major update to the program is the use of an external file to load the puzzle to be searched, in addition to this many of the improvements suggested in the other comments have been included. An additional change is the ability to load a puzzle file from inside the program and to access internal help from the program.

Interface:

The interface remains essentially the same as before, with only the addition of several new commands outlined below:
#help - displays the list of internal commands and what they do<
#newpuzzle FILENAME - loads a new puzzle from the file
#quit - Same as in the previous version.

In addition, the program now accepts arguments from the command line, the most important of these (and the only required one) is -f to load the file to be searched.

Note: if this is forgotten, the program will prompt the user to supply a file.

Planned Improvements:

1.) Moving the help data over to POD as suggested in the Getopt::Long documentation,

2.) Allowing the program to remember the location of previously searched for words, to cut down on search time (possibly using Memoization),

3.) Allowing the user to supply a list of the words in the word search, possibly combining this with the puzzle data file

Program Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl
# wordSearchSolve.pl
# Program to solve a word search puzzle semi-automatically.
#
# With thanks to toolic, Limbic~Region and Count Zero of perlmonks.org
+ for 
# suggesting several improvements.
#
# Christopher Dykes (2009-10-19) - (v2.2)

#Enable the following packages:
use strict;        #Enable strict syntax checking
use warnings;        #Enable diagnostic warnings
use Getopt::Long;    #Enable command line option parsing

#Define constants:
use constant 'VERSION' => 2.2;

#Declare local variables:
my($i, $j, $k, $word, $found);    #Various control variables
my $done = 0;            #Whether we're finished or not
my(@start, @end);        #The start and end locations of the word
my @puzzle;            #The puzzle to be searched

#Parse command line options:
my($file, $help, $version);    #Available command line options
GetOptions('file=s' => \$file, 'help' => \$help, 'version' => \$versio
+n);

&help                if($help);    #Display the help message
&version            if($version);    #Display the version details
@puzzle = @{&puzzleGet($file)}    if($file);    #Open our file if we h
+ave one

exit if($help || $version);

if(!$file)    #Get a file from the user if they haven't supplied one
{
    my $check = " ";
    while($check ne "y")
    {
        print "WARNING: No File supplied, supply now? (y/n) ";
        $check = lc(<STDIN>);
        chomp $check;
        
        exit if($check eq "n");
    }
    print "Enter file name:\t";    $file = <STDIN>;
    @puzzle = @{&puzzleGet($file)};
}

#Display the header:
print "Wordsearch Solver (v", VERSION, "):\n\n";
print "Enter the term to search for, enter '#quit' to exit ";
print "and #help for assistance\n\n";

#Allow the user to search:
while(!$done)
{
    print "> ";    chomp($word = <STDIN>);    #Get the word from the u
+ser
    my @chars = split(//,  $word);
    my @words = split(/ /, $word);

    if($chars[0] eq "#")
    {
        $done++        if($word eq "#quit");
        &internalHelp    if($word eq "#help");
        if($words[0] eq "#newpuzzle")
        {
            @puzzle = @{&getPuzzle($words[1])};
        }
    }
    else
    {
        print $word, "\t= ";
        my @word = split(//, $word);

        for($i = 0, $found = 0; $i < @puzzle && !$found; $i++)    #Row
+ loop
        {
            for($j = 0; $j < @puzzle && !$found; $j++)    #Col loop
            {
                for($k = 0; $k < 8 && !$found; $k++)    #Dir loop
                {
                    my @gen = ("");
                    $found = &search($k, $i, $j, \@puzzle, \@word, @ge
+n);
                }
            }
        }
        print "($i,$j) - ($end[0],$end[1])\n" if($found);
        print "NO RESULT\n" if(!$found);
    }
}

#Subroutines begin here:
sub search    #Performs a recursive search across the puzzle
{
    #Declare local variables:
    my($dir, $row, $col, $puzRef, $wrdRef, @gen) = @_;
    my @puzzle = @{$puzRef};
    my @word   = @{$wrdRef};

    ($end[0], $end[1]) = (($row + 1), ($col + 1));    #Set our end loc
+ation

    return 0 if($puzzle[$row][$col] ne $word[$#gen]);
    return 1 if($#word == $#gen);

    #Decide what to do:
    $row++ if(($dir == 0 || $dir == 4 || $dir == 5) && $row < $#puzzle
+);
    $row-- if(($dir == 1 || $dir == 6 || $dir == 7) && $row > 0);
    $col++ if(($dir == 3 || $dir == 5 || $dir == 7) && $col < $#puzzle
+);
    $col-- if(($dir == 2 || $dir == 4 || $dir == 6) && $col > 0);
    
    #Do the useful stuff:
    push(@gen, $puzzle[$row][$col]);
    return 1 if(&search($dir, $row, $col, \@puzzle, \@word, @gen)) || 
+return 0;
}
sub puzzleGet
{
    my @puzzle;

    open(FILEIN, "$_[0]") || die("Couldn't open file $_[0]");

    while(<FILEIN>)
    {
        chomp($_);
        my @line = split(/ /, $_);
        push(@puzzle, \@line);
    }

    return \@puzzle;
}
sub help
{
    print "Usage: wordSearchSolve.pl [OPTION] -f [FILENAME]\n";
    print "A program to solve a word search automatically\n\n";
    print "-f\t--file\t\tLoad the puzzle from this file\n";
    print "-h\t--help\t\tDisplay this message\n";
    print "-v\t--version\tDisplay version information\n\n";
    print "Report bugs to <dykes.chris\@gmail.com>.\n";
}
sub version
{
    print "wordSearchSolve (v", VERSION, ")\n";
    print "Copyright (C) 2009 Christopher Dykes.\n";
    print "License GPLv3+: GNU GPL Version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/
+licenses/gpl.html>\n";
    print "This is free software: you are free to change and redistrib
+ute it.\n";
    print "There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.\n\n";
    print "Written by Christopher Dykes.\n";
    print "With thanks to toolic, Limbic~Region and Count Zero of perl
+monks.org\n";
    print "for suggesting several improvements.\n";
}
sub internalHelp
{
    print "\nAvailable commands are:\n";
    print "\t#help\t\tDisplay this message\n";
    print "\t#newpuzzle\tLoad a new puzzle from a file\n";
    print "\t#quit\t\tExit the program\n";
    print "\n";
}
[download]

The puzzle data file:

This can be any plain text file laid out like the one below:

r e l a e d b y
e s c r e e n t 
m i o e i s h l 
i s l a t e r a 
t n u r c n n u 
r g m u a i h s 
o u b m t h a a 
m e o a n c c c
[download]