I didn't mean that "just in perl" it's counter-intuitive, I meant, the way perl forces you to do it is counter-intuitive. Of course what is intuitive differs depending on the person, I just find it much more natural to put the condition first. I would never say, "I use my umbrella if it rains." I would say, "If it rains, I'll use my umbrella." Of course as the reply stated below, I could wrap the whole thing in parens and use && but that (IMO of course) is still not as intuitive as saying if(COND) do_something(); I've been working with perl now for years and I still pause and scratch my head when I see that in code. I fear I'll never get used to it.

Either way, I didn't mean to say that it was only counter-intuitive in perl.