# "What I essentially need is a way to say..."

my $start_tag     = 'BEGIN';
my $end_constant  = 'END';
my $headerformat  = join('; ', "%s=%s" x 17)."\n"; # XXX ? format for printf() ?
my $headerfile    = 'header000';
my $detailsection = 'detail000';

open IN, '<', $file) or die "Can't read '$file': $!\n";

RECORD: while(defined($_ = <IN>)) {
    my %out;               # we'll capture the "record content" for printf() here
    if (/$start_tag/) {    # "...start at this character..."
        $. = 0;            # reset line counter
        while(<IN>) {      # "...read each line for the next 17..."
                                       # XXX the specs aren't clear her.
            my ($key, $value) = split; # so I'll just split
            $out{$key} = $value;       # "...assign to values to do
                                       # a printf statement..."
            if($. == 17) { # done with reading the record. do "the printf()"
                open HEADER, '>', $headerfile
                    or die "Can't write to '$headerfile': $!\n";
                printf HEADER $headerformat, map { $_,$out{$_} } keys %out;
                close HEADER;
                $headerfile++;     # string increment: header000 -> header001
                $. = 0;
                open DETAIL, '>', $detailsection
                    or die "Can't write to '$detailsection': $!\n";
                                   # "starting at the 18th line of that record..."
                while(<IN>) {      # "...read until the end constant..."
                    print DETAIL;  # "...and print that straight to 
                                   # a different file..."
                    last if /$end_constant/;
                }
                close DETAIL;
                $detailsection++;
                next RECORD;         # "...and then start the entire loop again."
            }
        }
    }
}