Thanks for the link stevieb. It's good to know it's still being actively discussed, though I get the impression from the conversation the verdict is still very much out as to what will ultimately be done (if anything).

I was also curious enough to try to quick Google and perldoc search what they might have been talking about with the Smart Match overloading $x~~, but after not finding an explanation immediately and upon deeper reflection I decided that no... no this probably is one keyhole I don't want to look through. :-)