Hi, First off, my apologies if my question is phrased wrong... I am trying to work on the following script: 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
#My First Reference called ref1.pl!!
my $array = [`DIR`];
print "@{$array}\n";

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Thing is, the moment I hit enter after typing  perl ref1.pl, it takes about 3 to 4 seconds for the output to appear. So I tried using the debugger and found out that the seconds are consumed at the line where  my $array = [`DIR`]; appears.... 
C:\perl\practice>perl -d ref1.pl

Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.33
Editor support available.

Enter h or `h h' for help, or `perldoc perldebug' for more help.

main::(ref1.pl:5):      my $array = [`DIR`];

  DB<1> l
5==>    my $array = [`DIR`];
6:      print "@{$array}\n";

  DB<1> s

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This is where it takes about 3 seconds and then the following line appears. After that, everything is put out on the screen pretty fast. 
main::(ref1.pl:6):      print "@{$array}\n";
 
  DB<1> s
main::(ref1.pl:6):      print "@{$array}\n";

  DB<1> s
 Volume in drive C is PC COE
  Volume Serial Number is 2EB6-FC84

  Directory of C:\perl\practice

 12/11/2011  12:39 AM    <DIR>          .
 12/11/2011  12:39 AM    <DIR>          ..
 12/09/2011  12:27 AM               303 each.pl
 12/09/2011  12:16 AM               271 hashcolor.pl
 12/10/2011  01:31 PM               468 Perl-1.pl
 12/10/2011  02:13 PM               534 Perl-2.pl
 12/10/2011  05:28 PM               223 Perl-4.pl
 12/09/2011  12:34 AM               301 Perl-5.pl
 12/11/2011  12:39 AM               112 ref1.pl
                7 File(s)          2,212 bytes
                2 Dir(s)  445,457,670,144 bytes free

Debugged program terminated.  Use q to quit or R to restart,
  use o inhibit_exit to avoid stopping after program termination,
  h q, h R or h o to get additional info.

  DB<1> s
Use `q' to quit or `R' to restart.  `h q' for details.

  DB<1> q

C:\perl\practice>

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Is this expected behaviour when I use an anonymous reference? Am I doing something wrong here? I have installed 32 bit Activestate Perl on my 64 Bit Windows 7 laptop. Could that be a reason? I have the 64 bit version too, but since the servers on which I plan to run my scripts from is 32 bits, I thought its better to install a 32 bit version. Please let me know.

In reply to why is my reference taking a while to execute? by perl514

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