Perl contains many shortcuts (or conveniences, if you prefer) designed, in part, to save some typing. For example:

Update: Fixed the slash problem (thanks, Fastolfe).

Given some of the recent discussion regarding coding style, is it best to avoid counting on these shortcuts?

My thinking here is based on my experience in other languages. For example, in certain languages, you can occasionally get away with implied typecasting. However, there are times when the results of an implied cast are not what you were after and the novice ends up fruitlessly hunting for a bug in what appears to be perfectly good code.

More practically, I wonder if certain examples (no, I don't have any in mind) reply too heavily on shortcuts.

What do you think? What shortcuts, if any, do you take advantage of and which ones do you specifically ignore (e.g. type the longer form)?

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For the record, I try to be as specific as possible, if only to help the hapless novice that has to maintain my code in the future.

In reply to Regarding style by footpad

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