From Perl 5.004 docs:
If either operand of scalar ".." is a numeric literal, that operand is implicitly compared to the $. variable, the current line number.
This is an excerpt from MacPerl documentation (I'm used to program on Macintosh). On my Linux box (with Perl 5.004 installed) the phrase is (I think):
If eitrher operand ... is a constant
Am I missing something?
-- "Fatti non foste a viver come bruti"