You should usually use the three argument form of open and lexically scoped filehandles and you should probably include the file name in the error message so you know which file failed to open.
Actually, it's quite common that it doesn't matter whether one uses 2-arg, or 3-arg open. This is one of the cases.

As for the error message, considering the program only tries to open one file, with a fixed name, it should be bloody obvious which file failed to open. "Should include the file name" is a much too strong.

In reply to Re^2: Help Me! by JavaFan
in thread Help Me! by ajbrewe

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