The problem with perlvar is that it is not all that friendly when the goal is to refresh ones memory on which special var it is that does XXX. It's just not categorized very well ...or if it is, I just didn't see it. True, it is not a terribly long document, but by way of example, there are special variables that deal with regexps scattered in at least three different places in the doc. The primary reason I put this node together was simply to provide a quick, categorized crossreference.

Frankly, I'm not sure which is more valuable; this parent node (the Perl Special Variables Quick Reference), or the refresher course I got by putting it together. Maybe the node itself fills a need that isn't really there, but it did give me an excuse for diving back into the docs again.

While on the topic of the POD, I wanted to speculate for a moment what it is that causes so many to avoid it in the first place. I myself read all of the Llama book and most of the Camel book before finally getting comfortable with the idea of using the perldocs. And from the looks of many of the questions that get asked in Seekers of Perl Wisdom, I'm not alone in having had an early-on aversion to the POD.

For me, discovering it and getting comfortable with it was a significant step toward gaining a more comprehensive understanding of Perl. I feel that others will have that lightbulb flick on in their minds if they too get comfortable with reading Perl's POD.

That is the other reason I created this parent node. I thought that perhaps it could whet someones' apetite for more, and that by linking to perlvar at the end of the list someone might follow the link and take the first step into Perl's POD.

Cheers!