I guess that depends on whether you put a dollar value on the time it takes to write that - I suppose the 1K-2K price might be reasonable if the perl programmer is somehow braindead and it'd take a long time to write (more than a few hours) or if the programmer has a high value at which point either something obvious and simple will arise or its just worth the money to buy a license.

Just keep in mind through all this that there are other considerations outside of mere price tag.

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