Yea, I think that will be a better solution. The only point, after I've opened the file, that I actually care if it's a file is the overall while loop, so as long as I start that loop with an open filehandle or an IO::File object, I can just do the while loop on it:

while ( my $line = <$current_file> ) { ... }
# $current_file can be a filehandle or an IO::File obejct
# or anything else that responds appropriately in the < >
# construct.
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Besides making that change, I think I'll also closure-off the internals of that loop; it will be much easier to write the other suggested functions that I put in the desc of this code; in addition, I can see an 'fmap' function and a few other things that as long as I have a function that determines what you do with a line, it doesn't matter what else goes on.

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Dr. Michael K. Neylon - mneylon-pm@masemware.com || "You've left the lens cap of your mind on again, Pinky" - The Brain
"I can see my house from here!"
It's not what you know, but knowing how to find it if you don't know that's important