Ok, what I am going to show you may freak you out. But that's ok.

This is not meant to overwhelm you. I hope this is more of an inspiration of what perl can really do for you

What you are learning is very useful. I've gone through those motions like most of us here have. But also, you should have a hint of what's at the end of the rainbow..

So.. here. I wrote this just for you. I'll come back later and explain a little more. This code is fully tested and functional.

package CGI::Application::Tutorial::Namegame;
use base 'CGI::Application';
use CGI::Application::Plugin::Session;
use CGI::Application::Plugin::Feedback ':all';
use CGI::Application::Plugin::AutoRunmode;
use CGI::Application::Plugin::Forward;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Carp;

sub setup {
   my $self = shift;
   $self->start_mode('choose_name');
}

sub choose_name : Runmode {
   my $self = shift;
   $self->_detect_name_change_request;

   my $q = $self->query;
   my $html = 
        $q->start_html
      . $self->_nav
      . $q->h1('Choose Name')
      . $q->start_form
      . $q->textfield('name')
      . $q->submit('save')
      . $q->end_form
      . $q->end_html;

   return $html;  
}


sub show_verse : Runmode {
   my $self = shift;   
   $self->_detect_name_change_request;

   my $name = $self->_get_name_chosen
      or return $self->forward('choose_name');   


   require Lingua::EN::Namegame;

   my $verse = Lingua::EN::Namegame::name2verse($name)
      or $self->feedback("Sorry, cannot generate verse for [$name]")
      and $self->session->clear('name')
      and return $self->forward('choose_name');
      
   my $q = $self->query;   
   my $html = 
        $q->start_html
      . $self->_nav
      . $q->h1('Your Verse:')
      . $q->pre($verse)
      . $q->end_html;

   return $html;   
}



sub _detect_name_change_request {
   my $self = shift;
     
   my $name = $self->query->param('name');
   defined $name or return 0;   

   $name=~/^\w+$/
      or $self->feedback('Your "name" input sucks.')
      and $self->feedback('Try again.')
      and return 0;

   $self->session->param( name => $name );
   $self->session->flush;
   $self->feedback("Ok, name choice saved for [$name].");
   return 1;
}



sub _get_name_chosen {
   my $self = shift;
   my $name = $self->session->param('name');
   defined $name
      or $self->feedback('no name chosen yet')
      and return;
      
   return $name;
}



sub _nav {
   my $self = shift;
   
   my $navetc = 
        $self->query->p(q{<a href="?rm=choose_name">Choose Name</a>})
      . $self->query->p(q{<a href="?rm=show_verse">Show Verse</a>})
      . $self->get_feedback_html;

   return $navetc;   
}

1;
[download]

here you can see what it does in action

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