I do not know, what this book is trying to say, either. Yet I think, :: does have more meanings in addition to those you mentioned, at least in OO-context. AFAIK, 
Animal->foo()

[download]
is the same like 
Animal::foo("Animal")

[download]
Now, if Dog is an Animal, and has no own implementation of the foo()-method, 
Dog->foo()

[download]
is the same as Dog::foo("Animal") update Animal::foo("Dog") (thanks to ikegami)

Maybe you can clarify your question a little bit further.

As to your p.s., I know :: as the 'scope resolution operator', but I don't know whether this name is really very common in the Perl community.

In reply to Re: ::'s role in strings by mantadin
in thread ::'s role in strings by eff_i_g

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