Actually, I tried your example and got the following:

Global symbol "$NETOBJ" requires explicit package name at F:\reg.pl li
+ne 7.
Execution of F:\reg.pl aborted due to compilation errors.
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It seems as though it was trying to interpolate the variable in the double quoted string. Once I replaced the "s with 's , the program ran and gave the following output:

parameter
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Here's the change:

$a = '$$NETOBJ.parameter';
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Mick