"... then of course I don't need to read them from local files and directories."

But why is this bad? The __DATA__ section should be used sparingly, it's really just a convient hack that should be used for achieving quick and dirty results. Please think twice before you use this "convenience" in production code. Besides, i always reserve the __DATA__ (AKA __END__) section for my POD in all production code i write.

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)