#!/usr/bin/perl

use charnames ":alias" => { map { $_ => $char++ }
  'first character',
  'second character',
  'third character'
};

printf "First: %X; third: %X\n",
  ord("\N{first character}"),
  ord("\N{third character}");

##</code><code>##

Unknown charname 'first character' at ./mytest line 10, within string
Execution of ./mytest aborted due to compilation errors.

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/perl

$characters = { map { $_ => $char++ }
  'first character',
  'second character',
  'third character'
};

use charnames ":alias" => $characters;