Yep, constants aren't very clear in Perl... unless you write them like FOO(). It clears up what is really going on to the user.

It also clears up what is going on to Perl. Barewords are quite ambiguous in Perl. Is it a function call, a string, a reserved word, a file handle, a package name, ... ? Sometimes Perl is forced to guess and sometimes guesses wrong (just like in the original node). So I almost always add the trailing parens to make things clear to man and beast.

One exception is that I sometimes call subroutines that take arguments without the parens to get compile-time notice when I mispel the routine name. But I only do that for statements (never in the middle of an expression), because there are even more ambiguities to trip on.

- tye        

In reply to Re^3: explanation of constant syntax? (clear) by tye
in thread explanation of constant syntax? by Anonymous Monk

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