I'm not sure I can say which is better. It took me a minute to grok the whole thing, but now that I do, I can see how your explicit code can be easier to use in the long run. So I guess that was just my answer.

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Jeff[japhy]Pinyan: Perl, regex, and perl hacker.
s++=END;++y(;-P)}y js++=;shajsj<++y(p-q)}?print:??;