scalar qw(this is a list); # returns 'list', but:
scalar map { $_ } qw(this is a list); # returns 4
    # map construct an anonymous array kind of thing
    # and an array returns the number of the contained items
    # in scalar context. But user-defined subroutines again:
sub func { qw(this is a), shift }
scalar func("foo"); # returns "foo" out of the list returned
    # by func subroutine