madtoperl,

I considered messaging this privately, but I think there are lessons here that might benefit others.

Several years ago, in an HTML forum, I set about answering another poster's question. After about three-quarters of an hour picking out various mistakes in the OP's code (which had obviously been cut-and-pasted from other sources with little understanding), it seemed that I had spent more time on this than the original poster.

Many years before that, when I was new to programming, I sat beside someone much more experienced, who was able to answer all my questions. Whenever I had the slightest difficulty, it was too easy to ask.

As Frederick Brooks said, "Good judgment comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgment." (Thanks for the link, eyepopslikeamosquito.) If you spend more time trying to fix errors yourself rather than calling for help (I know it's tempting; I've been there), you will learn much more from your own mistakes.