I'll just answer the 'other stuff'.
> ##this does not work....
>
> print ($sort_order) ? 'Newest First' : 'Oldest First';
Perl sees this as a function() call followed by the rest.
Instead, do:
> print $sort_order ? 'Newest First' : 'Oldest First';
In general, Perl works to minimize the number of
brackets you need.
> $sort_type = ($sort_order) ? 'Newest First' : 'Oldest First';
> # are the () optional?
Yes.
The issue is 'precedence'.
When in doubt, I usually switch to a command prompt
and enter a few perl one liners, eg I just tried
perl -e 'print $foo ? 1 : 2'
to confirm that I was right about one of the above points.
