Nope! I can not see any rational for that.

Hmm, well. $_ is the default "this", so @_ is the default "these". If split is called implicitly on $_, it seems somewhat logical to me to implicitly split into @_.

Bu then, the following arguably should not implicitly split into @_ : 

perl -wle '$n="";$f="abc";$n=split//,$f;print for @_'

[download]

To defeat that behavior we have to use the "operator" with the disputed name... 

perl -wle '$n=""; $f="abc"; $n=()=split//,$f; print for @_'

[download]

update:

That looks like coming from looong ago. Consider: 

while(<>) {
    $n = split;
    warn "processing $n tokens\n";
    &process; # implicitly takes @_
}

[download]
So... another reminiscence of perl4. perl4!

In reply to Re^3: More intelligent warning? by shmem
in thread More intelligent warning? by BrowserUk

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