What you have in mind is a re-arrangement of:

   if ( $x ) { print 1; } else { print 0; }

What you are really getting is:

   if ( $x or print 0 ) { print 1; }

Thus when $x is false, 'print 0' is executed, and then, since the print() returns true, the if-then body is carried out.

In reply to Re: Weird syntax question by Anonymous Monk
in thread Weird syntax question by Ovid

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