phaylon, Good spot on the typo, its wasn't ultimately the main cause, but I think its happy now =).
Program....

use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my @inputlist;
my @outputlist;
my @list;

sub AddInput {
        my $name = $_[0];
       
#        push @list, { name => $name, inputs => "-" };       
        push @list, { name => $name };
        push @outputlist, $name;
}

sub AddOutput {
        my $name = $_[0];

#        push @list, { name => $name, outputs => "-" };
        push @list, { name => $name };
        push @inputlist, $name;
}

sub AddNeuron {
        my $name = $_[0];

        push @list, { name => $name };
        push @inputlist, $name;
        push @outputlist, $name;
}

sub AddConnection {
        my ($from, $to) = @_;

        for my $l ( @list ) {
                if ( $l->{"name"} eq $from ) {
                        push @{$l->{"outputs"}}, $to;
                }
                if ( $l->{"name"} eq $to ) {
                        push @{$l->{"inputs"}}, $from;
                }
        }


}

sub AddRandomConnection {
        my @arr;

        my $i = scalar(@inputlist);
        print "we have $i elements to choose from\n";
        my $rand_i = int(rand($i));
        my $from = $inputlist[$rand_i];
        print "we picked $rand_i : $from\n";

        my $o = scalar(@outputlist);
        print "we have $i elements to choose from\n";
        my $rand_o = int(rand($o));
        my $to = $outputlist[$rand_o];
        print "we picked $rand_o : $to\n";
        #TODO: need to make sure you can't come to and from same node

        for my $l ( @list ) {
                if ( $l->{"name"} eq $from ) {
                        push @{$l->{"outputs"}}, $to;
                }
                if ( $l->{"name"} eq $to ) {
                        push @{$l->{"inputs"}}, $from;
                }
        }

}


AddInput("I1");
AddInput("I2");
#AddInput("I3");
AddOutput("O1");
AddOutput("O2");

#AddNeuron("N1");
#AddNeuron("N2");
print Data::Dumper->Dump([@list]);

print "Add a direct connection\n";
AddConnection("I1", "O2");
print Data::Dumper->Dump([@list]);

print "Add a random connection\n";
AddRandomConnection();
print Data::Dumper->Dump([@list]);
[download]

Gives output...

$VAR1 = {
          'name' => 'I1'
        };
$VAR2 = {
          'name' => 'I2'
        };
$VAR3 = {
          'name' => 'O1'
        };
$VAR4 = {
          'name' => 'O2'
        };
Add a direct connection
$VAR1 = {
          'outputs' => [
                         'O2'
                       ],
          'name' => 'I1'
        };
$VAR2 = {
          'name' => 'I2'
        };
$VAR3 = {
          'name' => 'O1'
        };
$VAR4 = {
          'name' => 'O2',
          'inputs' => [
                        'I1'
                      ]
        };
Add a random connection
we have 2 elements to choose from
we picked 1 : O2
we have 2 elements to choose from
we picked 1 : I2
$VAR1 = {
          'outputs' => [
                         'O2'
                       ],
          'name' => 'I1'
        };
$VAR2 = {
          'name' => 'I2',
          'inputs' => [
                        'O2'
                      ]
        };
$VAR3 = {
          'name' => 'O1'
        };
$VAR4 = {
          'outputs' => [
                         'I2'
                       ],
          'name' => 'O2',
          'inputs' => [
                        'I1'
                      ]
        };
[download]

Regards Paul

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