Efficiently.. I can't really comment on... since I don't know your definition of it... but what I can tell you is that Black Book is crap.. I had the black book before I got my Camel (Programming Perl 3rd Edition) and The Camel rips the black book a new one. Pick up Learning Perl & Programming Perl for book references... very good and will help you understand Perl better. I started out as a "hey perl can do CGI" type person too.. those books and this site have brought me a long way from that.