I'm guessing that its author didn't anticipate whatever weird optree you get from a ternary inside a "my".
There is no "weird optree". By the time Deparse gets its hands on the optree, the ternary has been optimised away.
What's left is exactly the same as if the ternary (and $a) had never existed in the source.
If there is a bug, then it is that the optimisation doesn't undo the local declaration of $a.
In reply to Re^3: my (0?$a:$b): a koan
by BrowserUk
in thread my (0?$a:$b): a koan
by educated_foo
| For: | Use: | ||
| & | & | ||
| < | < | ||
| > | > | ||
| [ | [ | ||
| ] | ] |