A tip that might help you solve these problems on your own next time. Use Data::Dumper! I always dump the data structure in question to STDERR first: 
use Data::Dumper;

...

warn Dumper \@messages;

[download]
H::T can still leave you befuddled as to why it got the wrong "data type", but 9 times out of 10 Data::Dumper has shown me the light. ;)

jeffa

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)

In reply to 3Re: HTML::Templates and Array Refs by jeffa
in thread HTML::Templates and Array Refs by wil

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