I need to change the ASCII collating sequence so that all non-alphanumerics sort together before numerics and alphas, and upper and lower cases are kept together. I thought that I could have the sort function's comparator transliterate @a and @b for the purpose of comparison, but it's failing and I don't see why. 
#!/usr/bin/env perl

use 5.010;
use warnings;
use strict;

say <<'EOF';
 .,-;:!?"'`_#$%&*+/|=@\^~()<>[]{}0123456789AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmN
+nOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz     intended sequence
 !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcde
+fghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~     natural ASCII sequence

EOF


my @list = qw{
                 "Hello"
                 Abel
                 (hello)
                 {adieu}
                 @adieu
                 [goodbye]
                 Charlie
                 ^Charlie
                 ~Adieu
                 zebra
                 21708
                 baker
                 .
                 -
                 ;
                 :
                 !
                 ?
                 "
                 '
                 `
                 _
         };

my @sorted_list =
    sort {
        # for each $a:$b comparison, transliterate $a and $b into temp
+ vars $x and $y
        my ($x,$y) = map {
            my $z = $_ =~
            tr
                / .,-;:!?"'`_#$%&*+\/|=@\\^~()<>[]{}0123456789AaBbCcDd
+EeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz
                / !"#$%&'()*+,-.\/0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS
+TUVWXYZ[\\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~
                /r; # don't smash the original $a and $b, instead assi
+gn to $z
            #printf "%-10s  ->  %-10s\n", $_, $z;
            $z;
        } ($a,$b); # transliterate $a and $b into $x and $y for sortin
+g
        show_compare($a, $b, $x, $y);
        $x cmp $y
    } @list;

say "\nSorted list";
say for @sorted_list;


sub show_compare {
    my ($a, $b, $x, $y) = @_;
    printf "%-10s %-10s %s %-10s %-10s\n", $a, $x, (qw/< = >/)[1+($x c
+mp $y)], $b, $y;
}

[download]
Output: 
 .,-;:!?"'`_#$%&*+/|=@\^~()<>[]{}0123456789AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmN
+nOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz     intended sequence
 !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcde
+fghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~     natural ASCII sequence

[Show @a and $b and their transliterated equivalents]

"Hello"    5faoou5    < Abel       X[ao
(hello)    FgaoouG    < {adieu}    LY_ia M
@adieu     BY_ia      < [goodbye]  Jeuu_[ aK
Charlie    \gY{oia    > ^Charlie   D\gY{oia
~Adieu     EX_ia      > zebra       a[{Y
21708      ('-&.      < baker      [Yma{
.          !          < -          #
;          1          > :          0
!          3          < ?          4
"          5          < '          6
`          7          < _          8
"Hello"    5faoou5    < (hello)    FgaoouG
(hello)    FgaoouG    < Abel       X[ao
Abel       X[ao       > {adieu}    LY_ia M
"Hello"    5faoou5    < @adieu     BY_ia
@adieu     BY_ia      < (hello)    FgaoouG
(hello)    FgaoouG    < [goodbye]  Jeuu_[ aK
[goodbye]  Jeuu_[ aK  < {adieu}    LY_ia M
^Charlie   D\gY{oia   > zebra       a[{Y
^Charlie   D\gY{oia   < ~Adieu     EX_ia
Charlie    \gY{oia    > ~Adieu     EX_ia
zebra       a[{Y      < 21708      ('-&.
21708      ('-&.      < ^Charlie   D\gY{oia
^Charlie   D\gY{oia   < baker      [Yma{
baker      [Yma{      > ~Adieu     EX_ia
baker      [Yma{      < Charlie    \gY{oia
"Hello"    5faoou5    > zebra       a[{Y
"Hello"    5faoou5    > 21708      ('-&.
"Hello"    5faoou5    < ^Charlie   D\gY{oia
@adieu     BY_ia      < ^Charlie   D\gY{oia
^Charlie   D\gY{oia   < (hello)    FgaoouG
(hello)    FgaoouG    > ~Adieu     EX_ia
(hello)    FgaoouG    < baker      [Yma{
[goodbye]  Jeuu_[ aK  < baker      [Yma{
baker      [Yma{      > {adieu}    LY_ia M
baker      [Yma{      > Abel       X[ao
.          !          < :          0
:          0          > -          #
.          !          < !          3
!          3          > -          #
!          3          > :          0
!          3          > ;          1
"          5          < `          7
`          7          > '          6
.          !          < "          5
"          5          > -          #
"          5          > :          0
"          5          > ;          1
"          5          > !          3
"          5          > ?          4
zebra       a[{Y      < .          !
.          !          < 21708      ('-&.
21708      ('-&.      > -          #
21708      ('-&.      < :          0
"Hello"    5faoou5    > :          0
"Hello"    5faoou5    > ;          1
"Hello"    5faoou5    > !          3
"Hello"    5faoou5    > ?          4
"Hello"    5faoou5    > "          5
"Hello"    5faoou5    < '          6
@adieu     BY_ia      > '          6
@adieu     BY_ia      > `          7
@adieu     BY_ia      > _          8

Sorted list
zebra
.
-
21708
:
;
!
?
"
"Hello"
'
`
_
@adieu
^Charlie
~Adieu
(hello)
[goodbye]
{adieu}
Abel
baker
Charlie

[download]
It appears that tr is not transliterating in the way I expected it to. Can someone spot the error? Is there a better way to do this?

In reply to Changing ASCII collating sequence for sort by ibm1620

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