You're right that it probably would not have made any difference in this particular case.

But that's the problem. I keep seeing that meme pop up, being used by people who don't understand that it is not "if-then-else" but something that acts a bit like it most of the time.

So, I can't let one like that go by without comment. Since ?: is actually shorter to type, I'd greatly prefer that this other ugly thing be eliminated and the proper operator introduced at every opportunity.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker