At the very end of the day, the essential difference is this: long HIGH_BITS. That is a "type declaration," in which you are able to explicitly specify how a particular variable's value is to be stored and handled. Like most interpreters, Perl does not (intrinsically ...) support explicit types. You can specify $x = 3; $x = 'abc'; $x = 12.34; and it will work. You cannot explicitly constrain the system to any particular behavior, even though "an experienced programmer might 'know'" what to expect. All variables in Perl are what, in Microsoft parlance, would be called a variant.

In reply to Re: Difference between Perl and Java for << operator? by Anonymous Monk
in thread Difference between Perl and Java for << operator? by davidfilmer

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