in reply to @_ still mystifies me

Presedence. "@_ is always evaluated to a true" - No, "@lexlist = @_" is.

I think these braces are in the right place: 

my @lexlist = @_ or sort keys %lexicon;

# read as
(my @lexlist = @_) or (sort keys %lexicon);

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What you want is: 
my @lexlist = @_ || sort keys %lexicon;

# read as
my @lexlist = (@_ || sort keys %lexicon);

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Or use braces: 
my @lexlist = (@_ or sort keys %lexicon);

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Hopefully the braces make it a little more readable :) or, and & not have much lower presedence than || && and !

In my experience, to avoid such confusion, I avoid the English versions...

cLive ;-)

Update: see below :) /me eats humble pie and revisits old scripts to see why this has never caused me a problem b4...

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: @_ still mystifies me
by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Jun 01, 2002 at 18:36 UTC
    This won't work because or forces scalar context on its operands.
    Update: Thanks, merlyn.
    ____________
    Makeshifts last the longest.
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Re: Re: @_ still mystifies me
by Anonymous Monk on Jun 01, 2002 at 17:32 UTC
    You didn't test your code, and your answer doesn't work.
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