Thanks for the clue, tybalt89. That lil' gem was the simplest of the lot.. and works well for my application.

Basic, introductory info on these 'options' may be found in "16.2. Using the Option Database", a section in Mastering Perl/Tk... but I had to do a lot more searching 'n reading and try some things to make any sense of it. If you're familiar with "X" and *nix and how resources are defined, it will probably be helpful if you're trying to get your head around these sorts of questions.