About enumerations.

old Java way:

    public int MENU_FILE   = 0;
    public int MENU_EDIT   = 1;
    public int MENU_FORMAT = 2;
    public int MENU_VIEW   = 3;
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I'd write that as

    public int
        MENU_FILE   = 0,
        MENU_EDIT   = 1,
        MENU_FORMAT = 2,
        MENU_VIEW   = 3;
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making it not that much worse than your Perl way, even though I agree that manually doing several assignments isn't satisfactory.

Well, Perl already have an easy way to declare a sequence of numbers, so, we don't need a enum word.

Your Perl way isn't satisfactory either though. Keeping track of how many variables/constants you have shouldn't be necessary. That's why I like the enum module. It has nice other features too, such as prefixes and bitmask enumerations.

    use enum qw/ :MENU_ FILE EDIT FORMAT VIEW /;
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ihb