...I should have been honest from the beginning.

Yes, people volunteering help appreciate honesty in return. If you had told me from the beginning that you were working on an obfu, I wouldn't have been opposed, though I would have given you the recommendation that it's now taken a series of responses to finally get to: Learn Perl first. Learn to get your script to do what you want it to do without the complications of obfuscation. Once you get it all figured out from a functionality standpoint, then go ahead and play with obfuscating it on your own time.

Good luck with your endeavour.