despite the many shortcuts perl offers the lazy programmer via the $_ variable by using it as a default argument in many functions, I realized that I could wrest even more optimization from perl by glomming this function onto common math operations!

For instance, if you're writing a quickie script to do some tallying, you might have line after line of $_+=10;
$_+=$n;
and so on. No more with the ARGHelper. turn $_+=20 into +=20 and $_++ into the delightful ++! that's a savings of half your keystrokes right there! Handles ++, --, and all op= operators!

In case you're still having difficulty, here's a sample script :

#! perl -l
use ARGHelper;
$_=10;
+=2;
**=2;
print;
[download]

package ARGHelper;

use Filter::Simple;

FILTER_ONLY
    code      => sub {
    my $nl = qr/(\n?;\n?)|&&|\|\|/sm; 
    s/($nl)\s*?--\s*?($nl)/$1\$_--$2/smg;
    s/($nl)\s*?\+\+\s*?($nl)/$1\$_++$2/smg;
    print;
    my @ops = ('**=', '+=', '*=', '&=',
             '<<=', '&&=', '-=', '/=',
             '|=', '>>=', '||=', '.=',
             '%=', '^=', 'x=');
    foreach my $op (@ops) {
        my $qo = quotemeta $op;
        s/($nl)\s*?$qo/$1\$_$op/smg;               
    }    
}
;  
                
return 1;
[download]