Be lucky you are using perl! The headaches would be much worse in other languages. Scheme (LISP), for instance, would give you a headache like you would not beleive! :) The good thing about perl is that it is so multi-purpose, that you may never *NEED* to learn another language. Of course, other learning them will make you a better perl programmer in the long run, but almost everything can be done with perl in this bright, wonderful age.