Thx, haukex, I was gonna spend a month on that, and I only had a few days before it needs to be done. I was almost through the logic of centering, but yours looks so much cleaner. This is essentially your same program but using Path::Class to specify input and output files and adding a couple customizations for this particular text:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use 5.010;
use Path::Tiny;
use utf8;
use open qw/:std :utf8/;
use Text::Wrap 'wrap';

my $dir      = path("/home/bob");
my $name     = "1.promises.txt";
my $new_name = path( $dir, "7.revised.txt" );
my $path1    = path( $dir, $name );
say $path1;
say "new name is $new_name";
open my $gh, '>:raw:encoding(UTF-8)', "$new_name" or die $!;
open my $fh, '<:raw:encoding(UTF-8)', "$path1"    or die $!;
local $/                   = '';
local $Text::Wrap::columns = 71;

while (<$fh>) {
   say "default is $_";
   s/God/a higher power/;
   s/Бог/Высшая Сила/;
   s/^\s+|\s+$//mg;
   if (/\A\w+\z/) {
      print $gh "\n";
      print $gh ' ' x int( ( 71 - length ) / 2 ), $_, "\n";
      print $gh "\n";
      next;
   }
   s/\n|\s{2,}|\t/ /g; 
   print $gh wrap( ' ' x 5, '', $_ ), "\n";
}
close $fh;
close $gh;
system("gedit $new_name &");
system("cat $new_name &");
__END__ 
                               Oбещания

     Если эта фаза нашего развития болезненна для нас, мы будем
удивлены, когда половина пути окажется позади. Мы познáем новую
свободу и новое счастье. Мы не будем сожалеть о нашем прошлом и вместе
с тем не захотим полностью забывать о нем. Мы узнаем, что такое
чистота, ясность, покой. Как бы низко мы ни пали в прошлом, мы поймем,
что наш опыт может быть полезен другим. Исчезнут ощущения ненужности и
жалости к себе. Мы потеряем интерес к вещам, которые подогревают наше
самолюбие, и в нас усилится интерес к другим людям. Мы освободимся от
эгоизма. Изменится наше мировоззрение, исчезнут страх перед людьми и
неуверенность в экономическом благополучии. Мы интуитивно будем знать,
как вести себя в ситуациях, которые раньше нас озадачивали. Мы поймем,
что Высшая Сила делает для нас то, что мы не смогли сами сделать для
себя.
     Не слишком ли это звучит многообещающе? Нет. Все это произошло со
многими из нас, с одними раньше, с другими позже. Все это становится
явью, если приложить усилия.

                               Promises

     If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we
will be amazed before half through! We are going to know a new freedom
and happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door
on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and know peace. No matter
how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience
can benefit others. That feeling of use- lessness and self-pity will
disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest
in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and
outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic
insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle
situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that a
higher power is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
     Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being
fulfilled among us—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will
always materialize if we work for them.

I'm still not completely clear what local $/ = ''; does, even with the say statements for $_. It's exactly what I need, but perlvar does not discuss what it means to set it like this, which seems, as you say, to be paragraph mode. (?)


In reply to Re^4: using Path::Tiny and reformating result by Aldebaran
in thread using Path::Tiny and reformating result by Aldebaran

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