... I don't understand what "for my $i (0 .. $#arr)" means ...

The other point to remember about this type of loop (a so-called Perl-style for-loop) is that is "topicalizes" (see "topic" in perlglossary)  $i or whatever variable you specify, or implicitly  $_ if you don't explicitly specify any variable, to each element of the loop list; see Foreach Loops in perlsyn. Also note that foreach and for are exactly synonymous and completely interchangeable keywords in Perl; the differing behavior of Perl- and C-style for/foreach-loops is determined by the syntax of the loop list expression.