if ($choice =~ /^1$/) {
      print $socket "STAT",CRLF;
      $answer = <$socket>;
      print "$answer\n\n";
      if ($answer =~ /^\+OK\s(\d{1,}).*/) {
         $msgcount = $1;
         print "You have " . $msgcount . " messages";
      } 
      if ($msgcount > 0) {
         for (my $i = 0; $i < $msgcount; $i++) {
            print $socket "STAT",CRLF;
            $answer = <$socket>;
            print "$answer\n\n";
            $msgnum = $i;
            print "Message Number: " . $msgnum;
            print $socket "RETR " . $msgnum,CRLF;
            $answer = <$socket>;
            if ($answer =~ /^\-ERR/) {
               print "ERROR";
            }
            else {
               # these are regular expressions to parse 
               # out and display only the From and Subject 
               # fields from the message header 
               # information which I get using the RFC  
               # 1939 protocol and I backreference the 
               # expressions with "$1" and "$2" scalar 
               # variables
               if ( $answer =~ /^From:(.*)/ ) { 
                  print "From: $1\n";
               }
               if ( $answer =~ /^Subject:(.*)/ ) {
                  print "Subject: $2\n";
               }
            }
            print "\n";
         }
      }   
      else {
         print "\n\nYou currently have no messages.";
         <STDIN>;
         next;
      }        
      next;
   }