1. As petdance pointed out, your file reading routine can be simplified:
         @lines = <NODE>; </CODE>
  2. Further, you can directly insert into a hash from your split, because in a sense a hash is just a fancy list:
         %known_files = map { my($k,$v)=split(/=/) } <LINKS>;
  3. Post-processing would allow you to figure out the 'top_level' stuff: 
         foreach (keys %known_files)
     {
          if(/announcements|links|news|info/i)
          {
                $top_level{$_} = $known_files{$_};
          }
     }

    [download]
  4. When you want to print an array, you just print it. You don't need to do anything special. 
         sub middle
     {
          print @lines;
     }

    [download]

In reply to Re: I know this code could be better... by tadman
in thread I know this code could be better... by derek3000

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