CGI.pm's ReadParse is fine. Don't fix what isn't broke. Update them as you are forced to revisit them.

Also, you don't have to use the Object Method system with CGI if you don't wish to. use CGI qw(:standard); will let you call most of the CGI methods as direct subroutines. $username= param('username'); is nice.

--
$you = new YOU;
honk() if $you->love(perl)