use CGI qw( :standard );

my $q = new CGI;
my $cut = $q->param('cut');
### work with cut here
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Thanks! These look promising -- I'll read through them tonight.

(Didn't include my template because I haven't written it yet. I'm that confused, still. But hopefully these tutorials will clear things up.)

Each my for the same variable will mask the previous contents of that variable so it is effectively lost to your script. So only use my once for each variable.

As for opening and reading your text files, I don't know how large they are, but if they have quite a size, the web-server will take a big hit if for every access to your script it has to read a huge file just to get a few random lines. In such case it is much better to put all your lines in database and get the content from the database.

Finally, where did you get the random_line subroutine? I see it nowhere defined in your script, so I would be surprised if it works.

PS: I wouldn't bother with finding the second to last letter of the input and using that as a randomizing device. Just do a straight random pick out of all of your lines of spam-quotes. It will work as good and none will be the wiser.

You should start your script with a use File::Random qw/:all/;

This will load the File::Random module and make all of its subroutines available in your script.

Then you can do something like:

my $dir   = '//path/to/my/SpamQuoteFilesDirectory';
my $file  = random_file(-dir => $dir);
my @lines = random_line($fname, int(rand(5)) + 1);
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This script will choose at random 1 file out of all the files in your '//path/to/my/SpamQuoteFilesDirectory' and from this file choose at random 1 to 5 lines and store them in the array @lines.

BTW, you did install File::Random first didn't you?

CountZero

"If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler." - Conway's Law

Thank you! And one more question -- hopefully the last: I've put File::Random and Want in a directory within the home directory of my hosting account, per related advice given here.

What's confusing me are these instructions at CPAN, about running the Makefile.Pl, and additionally the reference in the Dreamhost link above about the "use lib" command. I've tried to research all this myself, but I think I don't know enough about programming to figure it out.

Where/how do I need to take these final steps, so my script knows where to find the modules?

Yeah, the my thing was really confusing me. Thanks for the clarification.

How large a text file is too large to be practical, roughly speaking? I know even less about databases than I do about Perl, so I'd like to stick with some semblance of my original approach if it's feasible.

Last, I found the random_line subroutine here: http://search.cpan.org/~bigj/File-Random-0.17/Random.pm#FUNCTION_random_line(%24filename_%5B%2C_%24nr_of_lines%5D)

What do I need to add to my script to make it work?

(And as I continue to struggle with this project, the option of simplifying things down and abandoning the randomizing device becomes more and more attractive.)

Any time you see code that is almost the same, except for variable names or constants, make it the same:

sub get_random_line
{
    my $filename = shift;
    open my $fh, '<', $filename or die "Cannot read '$filename': $!\n"
+;
    return random_line( $fh );
}

my $filename;

if (my $cut =~ /[a-e]/i)
{
    $filename = 'infinity01.txt'
}
elsif ( ... )
{
   ...
}

my $random_line = get_random_line( $filename );
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Or at the least run it through perltidy before you inflict it upon others.

perltidy is not going to do well with the ‘mismatched quotes’, I suspect.

I'm looking for a job.

Your suspicion is correct, and yeah, I should know better. Thanks for the nudge.