do not use tabs, do not use 3 spaces, do not use 6 spaces, do not use 0 spaces. For-loops are written, spaced, and indented like this in perl:

This is far from accepted. The code for Perl itself doesn't follow that convention.

"$var_name". The quotes are extra typing and do nothing.

Actually, that construct creates a new string, which is a waste, which makes the reader wonder if it was somehow necessary to create a new string there. That makes the construct bad, not useless.

*You* are required to start every perl program with these lines: ... use 5.010; #if using perl 5.10+

What? No!

print() and say() are your friends. Before you try to open a file, print out the file name to see if you actually have the correct full path.

naw, just be sure to include the path in the error message when the call fails.