Thankz! a bunch!! All of you should me flaws with my code! and all of you were correct with what I needed. Shendal, I had to add this

$max = $max-1;  # I don't want it to count the \r|\032
print "X" x $max,"\n";
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A++ help! thankz!

Now on to what I was thinking when I wrote it... tomhukins $vc is a left over for "variable constant" a whole other issue..
Good idea though if I have to write the same code re-think things..

and... redsquirrel?.. I was looking for a "shorter" version, not the "shortest" version! Thatz sick! =:-)