To e more precise to the problem at hand ( i.e. the program given by the asker of the question was 'not printing' when a line containing 'start' or 'stop' was encoutered ): 
my( $START, $STOP ) = qw( START STOP );
while ( <DATA> ) {
  if ( /$START/ .. /$STOP/ ) {
    print /(?:$START|$STOP)/ ?  "not printing\n" : "PRINTING\n";
  } else {
    print "not printing\n";
  }
}
__END__
Hello,
I like to START
something and
not STOP it
properly.


---
output:

not printing
not printing
PRINTING
not printing
not printing
Enjoy! 
--
Casey

In reply to RE: Re: something about improving code... by cwest
in thread something about improving code... by Buckaroo Buddha

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