Thanks, a very good point. A SAX parser is the robust way to implement "creative file scanning", and I just didn't think of it. But the point regarding this alternative remains true: namely, that as you start doing additional tasks beyond reading and appending, it'll get progressively harder to get it done.

Regardless, since the goal of the project is to learn new technologies, maybe the best approach would be this: do a little reading, and a lot of thinking, about how XML document types can be used to represent various structures, and then consider what kinds of structural relationships will exist within the journal data. Then choose a data representation, and write a schema or DTD (even if no validation is needed, it's good practice). Finally, play with the various tools including both kinds of parsers. I'd even suggest poking around with a q&d "parser" that builds on something like

my ($tag, $attrs, $body) = /<(\w+)\s+(.*?)>(.*?)</\1>/s;
[download]

to see why it is disrecommended by so many people.

--roundboy