Rather, "split" is the same as "split /\s+/"

Actually, it's not. The only way to avail yourself of the magical default split whilst processing other than $_, is to use ' ' or " " in place of the regex. See the first and last examples below: 

C:\test>p1
$_ = '   the quick    brown fox   ';;

print join'|', split;;   ## default split no args (leading null field 
+omitted)
the|quick|brown|fox

print join'|', split /\s+/;; ## \s+ includes leading null field
|the|quick|brown|fox

print join'|', split / /;; ## same as split /\s/
|||the|quick||||brown|fox

print join'|', split ' ';; ## Same as no arg split
the|quick|brown|fox

[download]
Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
"Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."

In reply to Re^2: about split by BrowserUk
in thread about split by halfcountplus

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.