#!/usr/bin/perl


#  Look at the (sub xmlrow), here again you are creating
# scalars (my $ostar="<xtag:"; and my $estar="</xtag:";) 
# that are never used.  And, maybe you have a plan
# for them in the future that I am not aware of! But, this
# time, we are part of a loop sub routine. Each time it is
# called, it creates and assigns memory to these scalars.
#
#  I think you wanted to do this:
#     print OUT "$ostar$colname\>${$colname}$estar$colname\>\n";
# Note the backslash to escape the > of the closing tags.
#
#  However; The call to print as you have written it will be 
# much faster, and use less memory. So if you are not going to
# modify this any further, get rid of the scalars.

##             UPDATE
##  How about using INFILE and OUTFILE for your
## filehandles instead to avoid
## any problems within the world of Perl.
## Or, FILE1 FILE2

#this is the out from the previous script
$IN = "someFileName.txt"; 
$OUT = "someOutFile.xml";

open (OUT, ">$OUT");
open(IN) or die ("Cannot open file ($IN)");

print OUT <<TOP;
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xtags:some-node xml:lang="en">
TOP

$id = 0;

@columns = (category,id,code,title,summary,prereq,group,subgroup,sequence,rolemandatory,rolerecommended,roleoptional,url,modality,"length");

foreach $row (<IN>){
($category,$code,$title,$summary,$prereq,$group,$subgroup,$sequence,$rolemandatory,$rolerecommended,$roleoptional,$url,$modality,$length) = split ('\|', $row);

print OUT "<star:course>\n";

foreach $_ (@columns){ &xmlrow($_); }

print OUT "</xtag:course>\n";
	$id++;
}

print OUT "</star:learning-paths>\n";

sub xmlrow{
	my $colname = shift(@_);
	my $ostar="<xtag:";

	my $estar="</xtag:";
	print OUT "<xtag:$colname>${$colname}</xtag:$colname>\n";
}
1; #added to tell Perl that the file has been completely read and "use" or "require" has been fulfilled