Don't forget that there is also an unmoderated group for discussion of the Perl language, comp.lang.perl.misc , for topics that do not fall within the bounds of clpmod's charter. The perlfunc man page will give you more information on the return values from functions.
Many reusable modules are available for immediate download and use.
Another excellent dead tree resource is the first and only periodical devoted to Perl, The Perl Journal. Perl 5.6.0 is the latest and most stable version of Perl. Many bugs have been fixed with this release, several useful new features added, and much more documentation has been provided. Good luck with your Perl work.