The short answer for why is that m// is a different command compared to m//g (resp. s/// vs s///g ).

The /g variants are for repetitive matches / looping !

It's comparable to switching between if and while , which are obviously different beasts.

If you look at other languages like eg javascript¹ you'll notice that they are implemented using different keywords.

( I wished the perldocs were clearer here because it's causing confusion)

Furthermore are regular expressions meant to be combinable/nestable , but a sub expression with /g doesn't make any sense.

Cheers Rolf
(addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
Je suis Charlie!

¹) couldn't reproduce this easily, JS is very close to Perl in many aspects,

I had probably another language in mind... Python, PHP?

In reply to Re: 'g' flag with 'qr' (different commands) (updated) by LanX
in thread 'g' flag w/'qr' by perl-diddler

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