gawk into an array question

[EChadbourne-3av5VAs6qClGBRGhe+f61g at public.gmane.org (Eric Chadbourne)]

> This is not the answer to the question, but another way, as 
> is the way in Unix.
> 
> If one is rusty with awk, this is the perl one-liner that 
> gets at the first argument:
...

you know what, awk is giving me pain.  i think you have just inspired me to write my first perl script.  we're running on linux and have perl installed.  i just glanced at the manual and it reminds me of php.  $ and ; and other familiar stuff.  thanks for the inspiration doug!
- eric c.