I'm not quite sure what you're trying to do with the form params, but you have several errors in either your perl syntax or your html/css syntax (yext-decortation is normally spelled slightly differently;).

When passing css to an html element, the syntax is close but not exactly the same as you've used.

Try:

#!C:/Perl/bin/perl

use strict;
use CGI::Pretty qw( -debug );
use CGI::Carp qw( fatalsToBrowser );

my $q = new CGI;

my $pay = $q->param(payment=>"discover","master","check");
my $pay_text;

if ( $pay eq "discover" )  {
  $pay_text = "Discover Card";
}
elsif ( $pay eq "discover" )  {
  $pay_text = "Master Card";
}
elsif ( $pay eq "check" )  {
  $pay_text = "by check";
}
else  {
  $pay_text = "unknown method";
}

print $q->header,
      $q->start_html( -title=>"Welcome", -bgcolor=>"pink"),
      $q->p({-style=>'text-decoration:underline;'},"Your name is ",$q-
+>b("name")),
      $q->p("Your age is ", $q->textfield(-name=>"age")),
      $q->p("Your method of payment is ", $q->span({-style=>'color:blu
+e;'},$pay_text)),
      $q->end_html;
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If you put <code> tags (not [code] tags) around your code, then it would be easier to see what you are trying to do.

I think the problem is with your use of the "param" function. I'm not sure how you think it works, but your usage looks like you're trying to set parameter values where I think you want to get them.

I think that you want to replace:

my $pay = $q->param(payment=>"discover","master","check");
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with:

my $pay = $q->param('payment');
[download]

Try going through the steps I list in Troubleshooting Perl CGI scripts or brian's Guide to Solving Any Perl Problem. If that doesn't lead to a solution, at least you'll be able to explain the problem better.

You might also want to try some simple, command line scripts to learn how CGI.pm works. That removes the complexity of the web interface, etc, so you can play with new features. The CGI.pm docs have some examples of how to do this.

Good luck :)