> i'm still trying to understand what's happening exactly. as i can't
> speak pearl, it's a bit hard to me. are you perhaps able to "translate"
> your example to python or bash?

No, I know bash and python but I prefer the regular expressions
of the perl lang. I can help you with pseudo code

  - open infile to read
  - open outfile to write
  - loop
      + read the next line from infile or exit if EOF

      + if there is the `SEED' word followed by a NUMBER
        then execute `srand(NUMBER)'    [1]
	     and substitute `SEED NUM' with itself

      + if there is the `rand' word followed by (NUMBER) or ()
        then execute `rand(NUMBER)' or `rand()'   [2] 
             and substitute `rand(*)' with the result

      + write the line to outfile


[1] from perldoc: "srand   Sets the random number seed for the "rand" operator."

[2] from perldoc: "Returns a random fractional number greater than or equal to 0
                   and less than the value of EXPR " (in this case EXPR is NUMBER)

tito