@seti is being used in a scalar context here, to get the number of elements in the array. To be sure, it would have been better to use if( scalar @seti < $max ), but it is of no great import.

To get a feel for how this works, you can play around with

  perl -le 'print @ARGV > 2 ? "more" : "less"'
[download]

... with more or less parameters following on the command line.

update: oops, didn't realise this was a typo issue.

--

g r i n d e r