Though I find it amusing that you who often argue eloquently for the value of technical language are taking exception to the word "commutative", I completely agree with you that that is an awful sentence.

It is terribly overwritten, substituting rare and complex terms where simple speech would do nicely. Why not use the word "scalar" alone? Or if emphasis was desired, why not use ordinary scalar or even plain old scalar rather than the obscure word "vulgar"? Why turn the relatively clear clause ~~ is no longer commutative into a convoluted noun phrase commutivity breakage? Due to the fact that ~~ is no longer commutative... is far more specific about what has changed and avoids the awkward noun phrase entirely.

Perhaps all this seems to some like stylistic quibbling. However, programming language documentation is hard enough to read even when it is clearly and simply written. In the Perl community we are fortunate to have a fairly large number of people with right brained tendencies and strong verbal skills, more perhaps than other programming communities. Taking advantage of their insights to improve documentation can only be good for Perl.

Best, beth

In reply to Re^2: Perl 5.11.0 now available by ELISHEVA
in thread Perl 5.11.0 now available by Anonymous Monk

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