it also arranges for its left-hand operand to be interpreted as a string
Actually, that's where the problem lies: 08 is not seen as a string but (wrongly) as an octal number. Perl tries to numify this "word" whereas it should be stringified.

CountZero

A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James

In reply to Re^2: Clarifying the Comma Operator (bareword) by CountZero
in thread Clarifying the Comma Operator by ig

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