Thank you very much, Bob.
I last used the CBASIC flavor of Basic in the mid-70's. Then I graduated to dBASE, complete with TWO files open at the SAME TIME, and, of course, the real power ... built-in indexing. (Wound up a Clipper afficionado, but that was later). I've never tried QBasic, but can't imagine that it would be very threatening.
How do you run QBASIC? I thought there was no DOS in your new, modern operating system.
The idea of PERL sounds great. I'm taking a copy of your message off-line so I can study it more carefully. I can probably use my old DOS tools while I learn a new way of doing internet things. I've been resisting that, but it's about time.
Thanks again.
Fred