You can further simplify by reading the description of $/ in perlvar.. Therein you'll discover the magic of setting it to "", which allows 1 or more blank lines to delimit paragraphs, allowing you to write: 
open(FILE,"<$input_file") or die "$input_file: $!\n";
{ local $/ = ""; @data = <FILE> }
close(FILE);

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In reply to Re: When is an code^$/code not a code^$/code? by dws
in thread When is an ^$ not a ^$ ? by Clownburner

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