Instead of lowercase, if you are using a modern perl
you can use the builtin lc. I might also simply have
the user enter the number of players as a command line
option, so you can forgo the menu.
diagnostics
generally doesn't belong in production code. And maybe
try using the algorythm (sic) for selecting a line
(in
perlfaq5) from
/usr/dict/words
(or equivalent). The algorythm is fast, and saves from
having a seperate database.
UPDATE: I just realized you use clues. Hmm,
never played hangman that way, in that case the words
list might not be as helpful :-/
--
perl -pew "s/\b;([mnst])/'$1/g"