I have a short script that implements "Mad Libs." The idea is to read in a file containing noun1, noun2 type tags, and replace the tags with particles supplied by the user at run time. here is the script: 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

@story = <>; #filename supplied in ARGV

print "give me a noun: "; chomp($noun1 = <STDIN>);
print "give me a noun: "; chomp($noun2 = <STDIN>);
print "give me a noun: "; chomp($noun3 = <STDIN>);
print "give me a verb: "; chomp($verb1 = <STDIN>);
print "give me a verb: "; chomp($verb2 = <STDIN>);
print "give me a verb: "; chomp($verb3 = <STDIN>);
print "give me an adjective: "; chomp($adj1 = <STDIN>);
print "give me an adjective: "; chomp($adj2 = <STDIN>);
print "give me an adjective: "; chomp($adj3 = <STDIN>);

foreach (@story) {
   $_ =~ s/\[noun1\]/$noun1/g;
   $_ =~ s/\[noun2\]/$noun2/g;
   $_ =~ s/\[noun3\]/$noun3/g;
   $_ =~ s/\[verb1\]/$verb1/g;
   $_ =~ s/\[verb2\]/$verb2/g;
   $_ =~ s/\[verb3\]/$verb3/g;
   $_ =~ s/\[adj1\]/$adj1/g;
   $_ =~ s/\[adj2\]/$adj2/g;
   $_ =~ s/\[adj3\]/$adj3/g;

   print $_;
}

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As you can see, the script reads in a story from a file, and replaces up to three instances of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The problem is that the method is grossly inelegant. I know there must be a less brutish solution, so I turn to you for guidance. Thanks

In reply to An Elegance Question by Simplicus

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