Perl script has 
use CGI;
use CGI::Carp qw(warningsToBrowser fatalsToBrowser);
use Data::Dump qw(dump);

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In a global block 
my $q = CGI->new;
print '<!--', dump($q), "-->\n";

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and a little later 
if ($DEBUG) {
  print $q->hr;
  print $q->p('Debugging: '), $q->Dump, $q->hr;
}

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and in particular there is a parameter being passed, "orderby", which is set to 10, e.g 
<li><strong>orderby</strong></li>
<ul>
<li>10</li>

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A couple of the parameters direct execution of a subroutine, and in that subroutine 
  my $index = $q->param('orderby');
  my $desc = $q->param('desc');
  $index = 1 if not defined $index;
  print "\n<!-- variables (index, desc) are ($index, $desc) -->\n" if 
+$DEBUG;

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but <!-- variables (index, desc) are (1, ) --> Why would index not be 10? What am I missing?

In reply to CGI scoping question by WoodyWeaver

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