I don't recall the Perl documentation or the Camel ever referring to it as that... perhaps you meant "parsing"?

You may translate it that way if you wish. My reference was not Perl-specific. The difference between a compiler and an interpreter is that the compiler converts source code to object code and then its job is done; the interpretter reads the source code and performs the tasks. The exact process used varies by implementation.

Although the existence of eval and BEGIN really blur the lines

An interesting observation.

Also, it sounds like you're saying that "everyone else on this thread" suggested exit?

I can see where one might draw that inference, but only if they choose to ignore the preponderence of evidence that up to that point in time everyone had, in fact, discussed __END__, not exit. Most reasonable people would not likely jump to the conclusion that exitwas the reference being made.

Clarification and precision is useful in our profression, to be sure; though the latter is less necessary in general conversation, it pays to be careful. Thank you for the notes.

My reference was not Perl-specific.

Yeah, it took me a while to wrap my head around Perl's compilation / runtime phases, too. One thing in particular that seems to throw people off sometimes is that use is essentially like an eval inside of a BEGIN. I recommend this reading because that's what helped me understand: BEGIN, UNITCHECK, CHECK, INIT and END in perlmod, and in this order: use, require, do, and eval.

You know, I've never really studied it in detail. Maybe it's time -- thanks for the references!