Personally, i have it setup so that i can do the following, pressing CTRL-K executes a set command whenever i press it, for perl files, it does a syntax check :

map <C-K> :call SyntaxCheck()<CR>

function! SyntaxCheck()
        let filename = expand("%")
        let ftype = &filetype
        if ftype == '' 
                return
        echo ftype 
        elseif ftype == "cs"
                if exists("Makefile")
                  let cmd = "!clear; make"
                else 
                  let cmd = "!clear; mcs --parse " . filename
                endif
                echo cmd
                execute cmd
        elseif ftype == "perl"
                let cmd = "!clear; echo \"\"; echo \"\"; perl -cw " . 
+filename
                echo cmd
                execute cmd
        elseif ftype == "javascript"
                let cmd = "!clear; echo \"\"; echo \"\"; smjs " . file
+name
                echo cmd
                execute cmd
        else
                echo "Cant syntax check file type : " . ftype
                return
        endif
endfunction
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