There are several state machine frameworks on CPAN, the most notable being POE.

This is also how parsers and lexers are generally written, if you've had experience with those.

My criteria for good software:
  1. Does it work?
  2. Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?

In reply to Re^2: Skipping data on file read by dragonchild
in thread Skipping data on file read by igotlongestname

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