"I'm using the short version of the if statement"

The trinary operator does not work exactly like an if statement, thus it's no short version of it.
Here are some differences:

$_ =        # one statement
  /yes/i      # conditional expression
  ? 'Yes'       # value if cond==true
  : 'No'        # 'else' value
;
if (/yes/i) # control structure
{ $_='Yes' }  # block is run if cond==true
else
{ $_='No'  }  # 'else' block (scope!)
[download]

The trinary operator is a logical operator, not a control structure.

^~Django
"Why don't we ever challenge the spherical earth theory?"