This is something between a SOPW and a Meditation. I'm not really asking a question, just grousing...

I suspect every language has its idiosyncratic compiler error messages. I know Perl is not immune. Consider:

C:\>perl -c ag2gen.pl
"my" variable $i masks earlier declaration in same statement at ag2gen
+.pl line 1391.
"my" variable @test_order masks earlier declaration in same scope at a
+g2gen.pl line 1391.
"my" variable @test_order masks earlier declaration in same statement 
+at ag2gen.pl line 1393.
"my" variable $i masks earlier declaration in same statement at ag2gen
+.pl line 1393.
"my" variable @test_order masks earlier declaration in same statement 
+at ag2gen.pl line 1393.
"my" variable $j masks earlier declaration in same statement at ag2gen
+.pl line 1393.
"my" variable %test_order masks earlier declaration in same scope at a
+g2gen.pl line 1394.
"my" variable @test_order masks earlier declaration in same statement 
+at ag2gen.pl line 1394.
"my" variable $i masks earlier declaration in same statement at ag2gen
+.pl line 1394.
"my" variable @test_order masks earlier declaration in same statement 
+at ag2gen.pl line 1394.
"my" variable $j masks earlier declaration in same statement at ag2gen
+.pl line 1394.
syntax error at ag2gen.pl line 1389, near "2]"
ag2gen.pl had compilation errors.
[download]

Here are the offending lines:

1389: for my $i (0..@test_order-2])
1390: {
1391:   for my $j ($i+1..@test_order-1)
1392:   {
1393:     unless ( ( $test_order[$i] eq $test_order[$j] )
1394:       or exists($test_order{"$test_order[$i]\t$test_order[$j]"} 
+) )
[download]

for my $i doesn't mask anything. In fact, it doesn't compile (at least, not completely).

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