Here are two superfluous example of slices that "wrap"

@a = 0..4;             # a simple 5 element array
print @a[-2..1], "\n"; # 3 4 0 1 
print @a[-5..4], "\n"; # 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
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In the "de-obfuscated" code below (I'm not sure it is any clearer than the original(but there are a lot more comments)) I use two different notations in the comments for lists. The first notation uses single quotes and commas to show the list the way you might write the list when writing perl code. The second notation is more compact. It shows the list as it might look after you it through

join '-', @list

. The first method shows a space at the beginning or end of a list clearly the second just shows a dash at the beginning or end when there is a space there.

@j=@a=@p=@h= qw/ J u s t
                 A n o t h e r
                 P e r l
                 H a c k e r . /;
# scalar @j == 22;

print
(
  (
    (
      (
        (
          @j
        )[-22..21],q, , # doubles the array & adds a space at the end.
      )[-45..44]        # doubles the double.
    )[0,23,47,70,44]    # Gets 1st char from 1st array, 2nd from 2nd, 
+etc.
  ),                    # 'J','u','s','t',' '
  (
    (
      (
        (
          (
            (
              @a
                        # 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
            )[-7..10]   # H-a-c-k-e-r-.-J-u-s-t-A-n-o-t-h-e-r
          )[-18..17]    # Doubles it 
        ),q, ,          # Add a space at the end
      )[-8..-1]         # last 8 characters 
    ),                  # 'A','n','o','t','h','e','r',' '
    (
      (
        (
          (
            (
              @p
                        # 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
            )[-8..11]   # l-H-a-c-k-e-r-.-J-u-s-t-A-n-o-t-h-e-r-P
          )[0,-1]       # P-l
        )[-2..1]        # P-l
      )[1,2]            # P-l
    )                   # TRICKY! This is subscript into A-n-o-t-h-e-r
+-P-l
                        # The subscript -5..4 gets the 'e','r', in ano
+ther
  )[-10..-2,-5..-4,-1], # 'A','n','o','t','h','e','r',' ','P','e','r',
+'l'
  (
    (
      (
        (
          (
            (
              @h
            ),q, ,      # Add a space at the end
                        # 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
          )[11..22]     # P-e-r-l-H-a-c-k-e-r-.-
                        # 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
        )[-8..2]        # H-a-c-k-e-r-.- -P-e-r
      )[9,10,6,7,0..3]  # e-r-.- -H-a-c-k
    )[-5..2]            # ' ','H','a','c','k','e','r','.'
  )
);
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So my quesion is, how does perl know I want "-2 -1 0 1" from print -2..1, "\n";, and "3 4 0 1" from print ((0..4)[-2..1]), "\n";?

<shudder>

Or, is this realy some deep magic in the Range Operator?