in reply to Odd behavior of non-array symbolic references with $# (was : array)

If using v5.6.0 (or later), there are a built-in arrays named @- and @+ -- see perlvar (though it appears PM has older documentation than that).

In any case, using symbolic references -- as you seem to be doing -- is not recommended, and prohibited under strict. Just so long as you know what you're doing...