Are you doing the above only for a single run? If that is so, then you should go ahead and change the html manually, which will save you time as well as provide more flexibility. If that is not the case, then scripts written in perl would very much solve the purpose.

slurp it into an array, to loop through

You do not have to do that, just for the purpose of looping. File looping constructs are very flexible and solve the purpose very well.

a 'master' subroutine calls all other subs, in-turn

What do the other subs do? Is the subs in built in the scripts themselves? or are they dynamically generated?

I know that the HTML parser modules are better

Yes you are right. HTML parsers are simpler and they make your code easier to understand. Try the link for HTML Parsers Apart from which you can also find other modules related to html, xml parsers over here

Happy scripting!!!

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, it gets mad at you but when you take him on a car ride,he sticks his head out the window and likes it?