Getting readdir to return what I want is not the problem. The problem is the array. I've been testing and I finally got the array to be populated using split(/\s/, $standdir) on the list returned by readdir. I've got get the proper control structure in place to pop the data off the array. while(newfil = pop @standir) isn't working for me.
As for brevity, I have to write this script to be used by non-perlmonks. They are VB heretics.
Poetic Justice