This isn't a comment about your code and might be considered a nitpick but I think it's important none-the-less. You include a copyright statement with your code "# copyright September 23, 2001 by Michael S. Joyce " which is certainly OK but you don't tell us what we can and can't do with the code. E.g. is it ok to use in my own code? I know that by posting it here it can be reasonably assumed that the code is freely available to do whatever I want with but that wouldn't hold up in court and as a result I wouldn't be allowed to use this snippet in production code. This raises the bigger question about who owns the code posted here. I would assume that all authors retain the copyright but perhaps the Monastery does? Some snippets and code submissions do include a disclaimer or copyright notice but most do not. Would it be prudent to add a feature that would include a default copyright statement with code (unless the author provided a different one?) (I would assume the default would be the same license as perl itself). Maybe it could even be a user option..."include link to this copyright statement with all my code"?