you initiate the hash with %, and add keys with $, which in my book is wickedly confusing.

You're thinking of the big picture while you should be looking at the smaller picture. The sigil is not based on the data structure, it's based on the value being being fetch/set. Hash values are scalars, so "$" is used when fetching/setting hash values.

%hash = ();

I'm surprised you've ever have to do that. Hashes and arrays start off empty. Do you properly scope your hashes and arrays using my? use strict; will identify your most blatant scoping errors (i.e. where you didn't limit the scope at all).

is it ok to program exclusively like this?

Anything abnormal increases the chance of errors and reduces readability.

In reply to Re: Only using scalers and references by ikegami
in thread Only using scalers and references by stevesnz

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.