From your code you seem to think that perl objects are like c++-objects - which is not true. Perl-objects have no instance variables (or member variables or attributes); or at least not in the way you think. Variables you define within your package are class-variables, shared by all objects.

The trick with objects is to 'bless' a reference (usually to a hash, containing the instance variables). Every time you call a member function, this reference gets added to your function arguments automagically. If this is a hash, the contents will contain your 'attributes'.

I love Perl-objects and I think they are very useful so finding the time to get acquainted with objects would be a good idea.