shell> perl -e 'print  "what? [", $main::{'VERSION'}, "]\n";'
what? []
shell> perl5.8.0 -e 'print  "what? [", $main::{'VERSION'}, "]\n";'
what? []
shell> perl -e '$VERSION=1; \
                print  "what? [", $main::{'VERSION'}, "]\n";'
what? [*main::VERSION]
shell> perl5.8.0 -e '$VERSION=1; \
                     print  "what? [", $main::{'VERSION'}, "]\n";'
what? [*main::VERSION]

##</code><code>##

shell> perl -e '$VERSION=1; \
                print  "what? [", \$main::{'VERSION'}, "]\n";'
what? [GLOB(0x806151c)]

##</code><code>##

shell> perl -e 'sub VERSION {} \
                print  "what? [", *main::VERSION{CODE}, "]\n";'
what? [CODE(0x8107f30)]