#! /usr/bin/perl

sub whatever
{
        my ($arg1,$arg2)=@_;
    system << "ARGS" . <<'SCRIPT';
if [ -n "$arg1" ]
then
        set $arg1 $arg2
fi
ARGS
date
echo "what about this?"
echo $1 $2
SCRIPT
}

whatever $ARGV[0], $ARGV[1];