i've been told i shouldn't use subroutines in perl programs

Whomever told you that, either doesn't know what they're talking about; or you've misunderstood them. The latter conclusion seems possible as you seem to equate subroutines with "gotos"; which are quite separate things.

Perhaps you could write and post a ~20 line program that uses a subroutine. We might then be able to get to the bottom of the confusion.