merlyn,
You are of course correct. It is better to be safe then sorry. Unfortunately, I am a bit confused as to the behavior of the following: 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

INITIALIZE:
{
    my $cnt = 1;
    sub get_count {
        return $cnt++;
    }
}
print get_count(), "\n" for 1..10;
goto INITIALIZE if get_count() < 15;
__END__
1..10, 12..21

[download]
Care to elaborate?

Update: Explanation from tye in the CB
The re-initialization of $cnt doesn't impact the get_count() sub because it is only defined once at compile time. It however does get re-initialized which may impact other things within the same scope but not in the sub itself. To avoid wasting resources and make the intent clear, using the BEGIN block is a good idea (which I never doubted in the first place).

Cheers - L~R

In reply to Re^3: static storage in a local subroutine? by Limbic~Region
in thread static storage in a local subroutine? by Moron

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.