The main reason for my dislike is the puzzlement factor that a newcomer to Perl will have when encountering the statement.

Why should that be a concern? Do you use sequential alphanumeric identifiers for variables and subroutines to avoid the puzzlement that newcomers to English will have when encountering idiomatic words?

I agree with you about avoiding unless {} else {}, but that's because it's confusing to native English speakers as well. I don't believe that avoiding idioms -- where they'd otherwise be appropraite -- in deference to hypothetical unexperienced maintenance programmers is a good idea.

Update: I misread the parent post the first time, with which I agree. Sorry about that.

In reply to Re^2: A new idiom -or- I Hate Unless by chromatic
in thread A new idiom -or- I Hate Unless by erikharrison

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