using perl to edit .htaccess to add user:password

Hola,
I'm building a perl program for our company and I would like to edit the .htaccess file in order to give users secure access to area's of our site..but this has to be managed by layman's or else I would just give them access to our control panel.

I haven't delved into the .htaccess part, but the rest of the program is almost all done.

Thanks for any help.
webG