c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"my @array = (-9e9-123, -9e9-234);
 ;;
 my ($largest, $smallest) = ($array[0], $array[0]);
 ;;
 for my $elem (@array) {
   $largest  = $elem if $elem > $largest;
   $smallest = $elem if $elem < $smallest;
   }
 print qq{smallest: $smallest;  largest: $largest};
"
smallest: -9000000234;  largest: -9000000123