I don't quite understand your question, but a small unrelated thing: Instead of doing this:

my $num = 0;
for (1..5) {
    $num++;
    .
    .
}
[download]

Do this:

for my $num (1..5) {
    # You can use $num in the loop, and it gets
    # increased automatically
}
[download]

This keeps the $num variable nicely local to the loop.

Arjen