I've always hated that idiom. It's so satanic.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

my $COUNT = 0;

while(<DATA>){
  $COUNT++ while m{\b\w+\b}g;
}

die  "COUNT $COUNT";


__END__
Hello there boss!  How are you doing today.
I really hope you don't slip on that banana peel.
I count 22 words.
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