If it was only a statement separator, then either this should be legal: 
$a = 3 # no semi needed here
if ($a == 5) { print "b" }

[download]
Or this should be illegal: 
if ($a == 5) { print "b" }
if ($b == 2) { print "c" }

[download]
Because if we need it as a separator, how come we don't need it consistently for those?

No, the current syntax mimics C syntax, where an expression is not a statement, but an expression followed by a semicolon is indeed a statement. Too bad that the terminology has gotten muddled somewhere, but Perl acts according to this definition regardless of how the manpages read.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

In reply to Re: (tye)Re3: Extract potentially quoted words by merlyn
in thread Extract potentially quoted words by merlyn

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