in reply to how to return info from functions

Maybe an other approach is interesting for you too. See Best Practices for Exception Handling

s$$([},&%#}/&/]+}%&{})*;#$&&s&&$^X.($'^"%]=\&(|?*{%
+.+=%;.#_}\&"^"-+%*).}%:##%}={~=~:.")&e&&s""`$''`"e

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom