... to start bettering my understanding.
If you have access to multiple platforms, a little experimentation can afford insight. Something like Data::Dump::dd can also be helpful. The following is on my Windoze 7 laptop:
c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le
"print qq{'x$/y'};
dd $/, $\;
"
'x
y'
("\n", "\n")
Update: In the spirit of making sure that what one posts is true, clear and helpful, I thought I'd test my example code with $/ = "\r\n". The whole idea of the example was that you'd be able to see a difference between "\n" and "\r\n". Not so. Easy to see why when you think about it. I'll have to think of a better example!
c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le
"print qq{'wx$/yz'};
dd $/;
;;
$/ = qq{\r\n};
print qq{'wx$/yz'};
dd $/;
"
'wx
yz'
"\n"
'wx
yz'
"\r\n"
(But at least
dd does not mislead.)
Give a man a fish: <%-{-{-{-<