How is knowing that parens are used to override precedence helpful to someone that has trouble remembering whether to use %hash=(a=>1,b=>2) vs. %hash={a=>1,b=>2}?!? It's not. And so we are are still not on the same page. And like I said, we probably never will be, especially if you continue to be so hung up on black and white absolutes. I have explained several times now my viewpoint on this and at this point I can only conclude that gray areas like "indicate" are beyond your grasp. If I gave you "%hash=(" and asked you what you would normally expect to follow it what would your answer be? Something like "a=>1,b=>2)"? Edit: And if I gave you %hash=@" what would you expect to follow it? Something like "array"? So given the context, the opening paren does indicate (hint, suggest, pick a synonym) that a list will follow?