Thank you for the fast reply.
1) I always use strict and warnings. :)
2) All my subs are called with arguments, so the ()'s are always there, but given that I just saw the difference clearly delineated for me, I will remove the &'s in my code and see if that changes. THank you.
3) I had to google what a subroutine prototype was. I can tell you with certainty that I have none of those. :)

In reply to Re^2: Variables and Scope: The battle begins by Shadow-Master
in thread Variables and Scope: The battle begins by Shadow-Master

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