You find having ALL variables used outside subs shared EASIER TO DEBUG? Might be the case for simple CGI scripts, or programs of which the entire source fits on a single screen, but it has bitten many people.

Even Merlyn puts his subs last in his Web Techniques columns, which are deliberately aimed at instructing others on how to do things the right way.

And I think merlyn does it the wrong way. Besides, what merlyn does isn't automatically the right way to do it. Actually, I find much of his code written in an awful style, but I guess he'd say the same when reading my code. (OTOH, it's really hard to have good style when you're writing simple stand-alone web applications.)

As for the program logic you describe at the end of your post, I've seen real good, and very stylish programs like this:

my $qwerty;

# Description
{
    my ($foo, $bar);
    code;
    code;
    code;
}

# And now we're going to ...
{
    my ($xyzzy);
    code;
    code;
}

# Etcetera...
{
    code;
    code;
    code;
}
[download]

, which is great to look at, easy to read and very maintaible. You could do the same with a lot of closures, and thus bundle subs with the location of use.

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