Wow!
You really gave me something to study here.
I started Perl just 8 days ago, and I did my last programming some 20 years ago.
I see you are using things that i didn't know existed, or what they really do, like \%.
Since i already know what my program is suppoded to do, i can now trace the use of those things.
Your comment does indeed help me on my way, and will probably be keeping me busy for a number of days.
Thanks.