> there are some lines in this code which look totally Chinese to me

Given this script was originally written by Ton Hospel (thospel on Perl Monks), it would be more accurate to change Chinese to Alien. :) This was such a common problem in the early Perl golf days (when Ton's solutions were unfathomable by ordinary mortals) that it was felt that Ton must be an alien!

More examples of Ton's alien golfing exploits can be found by searching for Hospel in:

BTW, is there any reason to embed the whole script in your post rather than pointing to where you got it from (e.g. on CPAN).

👁️🍾👍🦟

In reply to Re: Weird syntax. What does this goto statement do? by eyepopslikeamosquito
in thread Weird syntax. What does this goto statement do? by harangzsolt33

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.