if you're going through all this trouble, why aren't you using pod? then anyone can view your docs by typing perldoc myscript.pl

as to your question, it depends on how important the code is. i'd document the entire module with pod at the end, but others prefer it interleaved with code. and if i had seventeen similar methods in the same module, i'd certainly try to consolidate the information a little more than the example you've provided.

and this wasn't in your question, but i believe good tests are worth as much as good documentation. write tests as you code, and you'll begin to see why. i've even written a set of ksh test procedures for my current client -- which has improved code quality quite a bit already.

~Particle *accelerates*