use Getopt::Long;

sub get_options {
        my $def = shift;
        my $cur = {};
        $cur->{$_->[0]} = $_->[2] for @$def;
        my @def = map {$_->[0].$_->[1]} @$def;
        GetOptions( $cur, @def );
        return $cur;
}

my $defaults = [
	[ debug => '' => 0 ],
    [ help => '' => 0 ],
    [ interactive => '' => 0 ],
    [ host => '=s' => '999.999.999' ],
    [ username => '=s' => 'username' ],
    [ home => '=s' => $ENV{HOME} ],
    # ...
];

my $opt = get_options( $defaults );

# if ( $opt->{help} ) { ... }
# foo( $opt->{host} );  


##</code><code>##

sub debug {
	my $msg = shift;
	writeLog( $msg ) if $opt->{debug};
}
sub timestamp {
	my $when = shift || time;
    my ( $sec, $min, ... ) = localtime( $when );
    # ...
    return $stamp;
}

##</code><code>##

# ...
my @k = ( 'Status', 'Time Stamp', 'Value', 'Error Message' );
my $h = $HoHoHoA{$line_number_being_processed};
$one_line_summary = $h->{shift(@k)} . 'No Error. ';
$one_line_summary .= $h->{$_} . '. ' for @k;
$one_line_summary .= "$j.";

##</code><code>##

my @k = qw/ status time_stamp value error_message /;