I think I agree almost entirely with this; however I can't help but feel that Perl in its current form is set up to allow idioms for almost any "simple" task.

The mere existance of variable "shortcuts" such as $/ and the like enables a whole host of one-liners, especially when coupled with $_, @ARGV and <> - almost certainly at the expense of code readability.

I think care needs to be taken whereever idioms are used - especially with code that others are going to have to maintain - the same care that should be taken when writing any code to ensure that it's readily understandable.

Future maintenance is the key - if it's not clear what it does, it's not going to be easy to maintain, in my opinion.

--Foxcub