The nested print statements give me the look of using some of the test modules on CPAN.

This is an instance where it is a good idea to write the test plan before writing the code. There are various modules on CPAN which can help here, including Test::Harness and Test::Unit

Supersearch gives some discussion including Unit Test libraries, opinions

In my opinion, deferring writing the tests until the end is almost as bad as deferring putting comments in the code until the end. Designing tests focusses the mind on what you are actually trying to achieve.