use strict; use warnings; my $firsttime = 1; my $line1 = ; print neverflop(); $firsttime = 0; my $line2 = ; print neverflop(); #scalar tell(STDIN); $. = 0; print neverflop(); print neverflop(); sub neverflop { my $statecount = ($firsttime .. 0); ($firsttime .. 0) ? "flip$statecount\t" : "flop$statecount\t"; } __DATA__ line1 line2 line3 __END__ flip1 flip2 flip3E0 flop