Strangely enough, that's the point. I have been challenged by a collegue. I was told that my code was "old style" and extremely verbose. Often that is a good thing, I think. But nevertheless, I was told that I wasn't using enough of the features that perl has to offer and most importantly that I couldn't do it. So far I have been doing pretty well but I still have more to do. My collegue calls it simplifying, I call it complicating. Anyway, thanks for the thought.