I believe you're correct. I tried to verify my recollection and came up with something even stranger. 

#!/usr/bin/perl
# 5.6.1
use strict;
use warnings;
my @values = qw ( one  var.1 test);
getsymbolval(@values);

#################################################
sub getsymbolval{
    my @syms = @_;
    foreach my $symbol (@syms){
        $symbol=~m/(\w+)(\.)?(\d+)/;
        print "symbol: $symbol\t\$1: $1\t\$2:$2\n";
        my ($ts,$te) = ($1,$2);
    }
    wantarray ? @syms : $syms[0];
}

__END__

[download]
Output follows (minus uninitilized warnings): What's up with just 'v' being in the regex?
symbol: one $1: $2:
symbol: var.1 $1: var $2:.
symbol: test $1: v $2:
Very odd.

-Lee

"To be civilized is to deny one's nature."

In reply to Re: Re(3): Regex Capturing: Is this a bug or a feature? by shotgunefx
in thread Regex Capturing: Is this a bug or a feature? by shotgunefx

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.