I can't seem to find it in the documentation, either, but I know this technique can be used for providing default parameter values for a subroutine, e.g.

{
    my %defaults = ( foo => 'bar', baz => 'quux' );

    sub mysub {
        my %args = (%defaults, @_);
        # do something cool...
    }
}
[download]

where the %defaults hash provides default arguments that are overwritten by anything in @_. Since a hash is flattened in this context just as an array, the behavior should be the same.

-- Mike

--
XML::Simpler does not require XML::Parser or a SAX parser. It does require File::Slurp.
-- grantm, perldoc XML::Simpler