PerlInterpreter* get_perl(char *perl_file)
{
    int exitstatus;

    /* have we done this? */
    if (NULL != my_perl) {
        return my_perl;
    }
    char *my_argv[] = { "", perl_file };
    
    my_perl = perl_alloc();
    if (!my_perl)
       exit(1);
    perl_construct( my_perl );

    exitstatus = perl_parse( my_perl, xs_init, 2, my_argv, (char **) NULL );
    if (exitstatus)
    exit( exitstatus );

    /* Initialize all of the module variables */

    /* exitstatus = perl_run( my_perl ); */
    return my_perl;
}