The only involvement of Unicode is the use of UTF-8 when you provided invalid data to print

Utter twaddle!

The unicrap 'manifests' regardless of whether you call print:

C:\test>perl -MDevel::Peek -E"$x = '--*--'; substr($x,2,1) = chr(~0); 
+Dump( $x )"
SV = PVMG(0x250e68) at 0x2669c8
  REFCNT = 2
  FLAGS = (SMG,POK,pPOK,UTF8)
  IV = 0
  NV = 0
  PV = 0x252e48 "--\377\200\217\277\277\277\277\277\277\277\277\277\27
+7--"\0 [UTF8 "--\x{ffffffffffffffff}--"]
  CUR = 17
  LEN = 24
  MAGIC = 0x2b66a8
    MG_VIRTUAL = &PL_vtbl_utf8
    MG_TYPE = PERL_MAGIC_utf8(w)
    MG_LEN = -1

[download]

Perl has silently and unwantedly f***** my data. Broken!

With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". I'm with torvalds on this
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice. Agile (and TDD) debunked

In reply to Re^4: Character in 'b' format wrapped in unpack by BrowserUk
in thread Character in 'b' format wrapped in unpack by BrowserUk

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