With great effort I'm pulling myself out from behind a pile of O'Riellys and climbing the mountain the seek guidance.
Using ActivePerl (5.8) I get the following errors:

syntax error at D:\plscipts\fwimport.pl line 44, near "sub nameimport 
+"
Global symbol "@name" requires explicit package name at D:\plscipts\fw
+import.pl
line 47.
Execution of D:\plscipts\fwimport.pl aborted due to compilation errors
+.
[download]

For the following script:

#!/bin/perl -W
# This script is for the importing of Pix firewall configs.
# This script requires Acitve Perl with the DBI module
# and DBD module for ODBC.  Also a user DSN needs to be made for
# the FWexcept database to be used named FW.
#
# This script is for internal use, it has not been built to 
# production standards.  There are no input or performance
# sanity checks.
#
# For the sake of my sanity I'm continuing to use my naming standard
# for DBI functions. For database handles the convention is "(name)db"
# where (name) is the database name.  For all SQL commands the
# convention is "name""table""SQL command type", where the table is
# the table/s names and "SQL command type" is qry, ins, upd, or del.

use strict;
use DBI;

# get the firewall config, submited as an argument
# the config will be passed to the script as the array @config
if (/$ARGV[0]/) {
    open (CONFIG,"$ARGV[0]") || die "Could not open $ARGV[0]\n";
    my @config = <CONFIG>;
    close (CONFIG);
}

# connect to the DSN on the local system database handles end in db
my $FWdb = DBI->connect('DBI:ODBC:FW');

# Build insert statement for the exception table
my $FWexceptioninst = $FWdb->prepare(q(INSERT INTO Exception(access-li
+st,acl-name,firewallID,Interface,server,Active) VALUES (?,?,?,?,?,Yes
+)));

# Build insert statement for the firewall table
my $FWfirewallinst = $FWdb->prepare(q(INSERT INTO firewalls(FW-Name,Ty
+pe,SW-revision,ContactID-PriWAN,ContactID-SecWAN,ContactID-ISSO) VALU
+ES (?,PIX,?,2,3,1)));

# Build query of the FirewalID assigned by the database
my $FWfirewallqry = $FWdb->prepare(q(SELECT FirewallID FROM firewalls 
+WHERE FW-name = ?))


# The routine imports basic information about the firewall into the fi
+realls table.
# It assumes that the firewall is administratied by Foo and  Bar by th
+e WAN team,
# and Baz in the ISSO. It returns the hostname of the firewall and the
+ FirewallID. 
sub nameimport {
    foreach (@_) {
        if (/hostname/) {
            local @name = split(/ /);
        } elsif (/version/) {
            local @version = split(/ /);
        };
    };
    $FWfirewallsinst->execute($name[1],$version[2]);
    $FWdb->commit;
    $FWfirewallsqry->execute($name[1]);
    @FWfirewallsinfo = $FWfirewallsqry->fetchrow_array;
#    print "$FWfirewallsinfo[0]\n";    
    return ($FWfirewallsinfo[0],$name[1]);
}


# The routine imports the acls into the Exception table.
# It requires the $FWID global var is set to the FirewallID in the dat
+abase.
# The local var $aclimport keeps track of the number of successfully i
+mported rules.
# It assumes that all rules imported are active. Output is the number 
+of rules imported.
sub acl {
    local $aclimport = 0;
    local $part = "";
    foreach (@_) {
        if (/access-list/) {
            local @acl = split(/ /);
            foreach $part (@acl) {
                if ($part =~ /192\.35\.84\./) {local $server = $part};
            };
            local $interface = $acl[1] =~ s/acl-//;
            local @importinfo = (q($_,$acl[1],$FWID,$interface,$server
+));
            $FWexecptionins->execute(@importinfo) && $aclimport++;
        };
    };
    return scalar($aclimport);
};

# If the firewall name has been supplied then get the FirewallID other
+wise assume new config
if (/$ARGV[1]/) {
    $FWfirewallsqry->execute($ARGV[1]);
    @FWfirewallsinfo = $FWfirewallsqry->fetchrow_array;
    my $FWID = $FWfirewallsinfo[0];
    my $FWname = $ARGV[1];
} else {
    my ($FWID,$FWname) = nameimport(@config);
};
my $aclimport = acl(@config);

print "The script has successfully imported $aclimport rules for $FWna
+me.\n";
[download]

I can't figure out what's wrong with my sub or my local declarations, can somebody shed some illumination on a poor novice?

Vec