You say (correctly, IMO) that the idiom requires knowledge of:

  1. local;
  2. the input record seperator, $/;
  3. ARGV magic;
  4. list assignment greediness.

FWIW, I think that's a useful list. It could even be seen as a succinct analysis of how the idiom works. It made me appreciate how much Perl I have learned over the past year.

I knew all of the items except for no. 3, the ARGV magic, which Aristotle pointed out to me, and which I then went off and learned about in perlop (section: "I/O Operator"). I have started using the idiom in my own production code (which is not subject to a code review, except by myself).

I do appreciate your point of view, nonetheless I think it goes too far.

Your point about coworkers really is very subjective. It doesn't say anything about how valid the idiom is *as an idiom*. But that's the whole point, I think, idioms are subjective. And as others have mentioned already, it will always be near impossible to draw a line or boundary for something subjective like this.

Yes the corporate/coding_standard reaction to this will often be to just ban it, but that doesn't make it right. Tomorrow they could be banning <> or $_ as well.

In reply to Re: Idioms considered harmful by DapperDan
in thread Idioms considered harmful by rinceWind

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