IIRC, the original reason for $a and $b is that they were much faster then using @_. That's less true then it used to be, but it's still the case that most sort routines are trivial enough that writing $_[0] and $_[1] instead of $a and $b makes them significantly more complex-looking.

In any case, as you say, they'll be gone in perl6. They aren't going away in perl5, because it'd instantly break everybody's code.

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In reply to Re: Why do we need $a and $b to be special? by theorbtwo
in thread Why do we need $a and $b to be special? by rinceWind

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