Yes, you're right about Carp - I do use carp in modules, but was giving a quick example (as you can tell by the fact I managed to "dir" instead of "die"). No excuses though - if I complain and give a duff example, I should expect to get corrected :)

The one issue with returning true or false in this example is that I don't know what caused the error - was it a failure on the file open or the print - ok I can report what's in $! but that's it.

A small issue though - at least I know the write failed, and that's the point. I'm not suggesting I can write stuff better than many CPAN authors, simply pointing out that failing to check stuff like write failures is going to effect everyone who uses the module, and that *should* be a cause for complaint.