Not knowing that "err" is "defined OR", my first thought would be that it had something to do with exceptions. The definition of the word implies that it has something to do with errors.

It sounds like your intuition is working just fine to me. Isn't that how err will be used? Isn't that how or is used now? (And since or is slightly wrong, err is introduced to pay attention to definedness rather than truth)

BTW, what does your intuition tell you about //? And why? Intuition comes from experience and is specific to the tool you're using. A C++ programmer would intuit that // introduces a comment. A Perl programmer has no such intuition. A Perl programmer might think it has something to do with the other doubled-character operators, &&, and || (or just be confused and have to look it up :).

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