While not disagreeing, I'm as sure as I can be without checking that there are CPAN modules that use "$s" in the synopsis (and later examples) as the example object. It only takes the smallest of mis-clicks when cutting & pasting to get into the position of the OP, for whom I have a great deal of sympathy. I'll see tomorrow if I can find such a culprit & if it's appropriate to try to do anything about it. When I use CPAN modules, I try to stay as close as I can to the synopsis & example code, as it makes appeals for help easier to write.

Regards,

John Davies

Update: finding examples of this is trivial. http://search.cpan.org/~frew/DBIx-Class-DeploymentHandler-0.002219/lib/DBIx/Class/DeploymentHandler.pm is one of many, chosen for no particular reason. I've made a personal resolution to avoid single character names in future, but I have no great ideas as to how to solve this issue generically.