There's a more standard "folding" mode: outline-mode (and luckily: outline-minor-mode). It takes a bit of setup, but I got it working pretty well using the advice found at: emacswiki.org

Important steps (the Wiki explains in detail):

• Set cperl-mode/perl-mode up to also use outline-minor-mode
• Change the awful (C-c '@' C-etc.) keybindings of outline-minor-mode
• Set up a good outline-regexp and outline-level