1     Readonly my %PAD_DEFAULTS => (
 2         cols     => 78,
 3         centered => 0,
 4         filler   => $SPACE,
 5         # etc.
 6      );
 7 
 8     sub padded {
 9         my ($text, $arg_ref) = @_;
10 
11         # Unpack optional arguments and set defaults...
12         my %arg = ref $arg_ref eq 'HASH' ? (%PAD_DEFAULTS, %{$arg_ref})
13                 :                           %PAD_DEFAULTS;
14 
15         # Compute left and right spacings...
16         my $gap   = $arg{cols} - length $text;
17         my $left  = $arg{centered} ? int($gap/2) : 0;
18         my $right = $gap - $left;
19 
20         # Prepend and append space...
21         return $arg{filler} x $left . $text . $arg{filler} x $right;
22     }