Only in Perl would you get:
code: 
opendir(DIRHANDLE, $testdir) or die "couldn't open directory: ".$testd
+ir;
@filenames = readdir(DIRHANDLE); 

closedir(DIRHANDLE);

foreach $file (@filenames)
{
chomp $file;
#pay close attention to the logic handling:
if (($file ne ".") or ($file ne "..")) {
   print "parsing: ".$file;
   $x = <STDIN>;
   open (FILEHANDLE, $file) or die "couldnt open file ".$file;
   $line = <FILEHANDLE>;
   $rep = substr($line, $position, $length, $value);
   close(FILEHANDLE);
   }# end if
}

print "I think we're done here.";

[download]
And then the output: 
parsing: .
substr outside of string at lane_changer.pl line 33.

[download]
Notice how execution of the string "." falls through the if statement. AM I MISSING A FUNDAMENTAL ASPECT OF LOGICAL OPERATIONS? Or is Perl just not up to the task? I mean, c'mon:

In reply to This is why Perl is so frustrating by eggmatters

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