One more reason TO use the variable method:

Better error messages, as you can get the filename in messages using the following:

my $f = "/etc/hosts";
open($f, $f);
readit($f);

sub readit
{
    my $h = shift;
    print while(<$h>);
    warn;
}
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The result:
last line of output is:

Warning: something's wrong at ./t25.pl line 11, </etc/hosts> line 12.
[download]

--Bob Niederman, http://bob-n.com