Part of the welcoming process is to point out the lessons of How do I post a question effectively?.

Since perlassassin27 clearly knows a few of them, that is, he used code tags correctly (Markup in the Monastery) and used a decent node title ( How do I compose an effective node title?), he was only missing the 3rd part of the trinity, runnable code :)

and in any case it is not always possible or post complete programs due to their length or because they are trade secrets. Instead he posted a fragment where he thought the bug was, which is a sensible thing to do.

I think its time you check out How do I post a question effectively? :)

The key to asking a question the smart way, is whittling down your code to a minimal, runnable, self contained program, which uses strict/warnings (and any required modules), and demonstrates the problem.

Quite often, while preparing this minimal program, the answer presents itself, like a present from yourself; your own gift horse :)

As for curses being obsolete, I can't agree.

I think you mean to use "don't" instead of "can't", can means having the ability.

You don't know what environment perlassassin27 is programming for, and you don't know if he is writing a new program or maintaining an existing one.

So how is it a problem that I suggest maybe he reconsider using Curses?

Perhaps he is maintaining point of sale software that needs to run on 20 year old terminals? In a situation like that, curses is the best form of GUI possible.

Perhaps not. I've seen 20yo POS terminals for Windows 3.0 and unix, both non-terminal.

Overall, not a nice way to welcome a new Initiate to the monastery.

How rude. At least I stayed on topic for this thread, and I actually tried to help the O.P.