See perlvar (for 5.10) when there was a section entitled "Technical Note on the Syntax of Variable Names", which contained the paragraph:

Perl identifiers that begin with digits, control characters, or punctuation characters are exempt from the effects of the package declaration and are always forced to be in package main; they are also exempt from strict 'vars' errors.

Seems to have disappeared from later versions.

With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
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In reply to Re^5: Scalar followed by parenthetical... by BrowserUk
in thread Scalar followed by parenthetical... by Anonymous Monk

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