@ Stud - I appreciate suggestions, but would you mind explaining what the addition of these specific lines do?

They make sure that you write correct perl code. If you don't, they give you errors and warnings.

Unfortunately, this was not the end of my problems. When I execute it now typing: "perl readwrite.pl 0720-da.txt" the cursor simple moves down a line blinking in all voidness.

That is what your perl program tells your operating system to do.

If you don't know what your code does, it seems to me that you picked a poor example to try and run. I suggest you back up and run an easier program, like one that prints 'hello world'. And instead of trying to learn about random things in some haphazard order, at the very least you need to read 'perlintro'. Better yet, get a beginning book on perl, so that you can learn the language in a useful order.

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