Jeez... Somebody hand me a fire extinguisher...

Yes, I find it more readable. No, I'm not joking. It's about as close to plain English as you can get. It appeared to me that the questioner was not very familiar with some of the interesting nuances that separate perl from C or BASIC.

When learning a language, it's often usefull to see a "here's what's happening" sort of example -- be it in pseudocode or ineffecient "straight" looping -- to show how a particular operation can happen.

I'm sorry if my example offended you; I didn't intend to ruin your day.