As for local scoping clopping outer scoping, I have not yet run across this problem, but I have never needed to use a variable twice with the same name in the same scope other than with local scope versus instance scope, and in which case, that all works fine.

I guess it depends on how you right your code, but the "Ruby Way" as it were does not run into problems like this, and it is not often a frequent complaint.

I get a lot more runtime type problems with Perl, especially due to the tendancy to abuse hashes and use less object encapsulation. The code is also more fragile.

Thus if you write Ruby well, you don't have many problems. Me too. If I write Perl well, I don't have many problems, either.

I never write foo.@bar = xyz as that's just bad style

Most Ruby objects I have seen fail to self-encapsulate their fields. For example, it would be unusual to see something like this:

class MyObj
    attr_accessor :name
    private :name=

    def initialize(myname)
       self.name = myname
    end

    # more stuff using name or self.name instead of @name
end
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Usually there would be raw references to "@name" all over the place. In perl, references to $self->{"name"} are typically considered bad style. If code inside and outside the class uses different means for accessing the fields, there is more danger of typos.

But my main point was about the danger of declare-on-assignment, like this:

axxx = 1
if (rare_condition_I_forgot_to_test)
  axx = 2
end
print axxx,"\n"
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If "axx" was meant to be "axxx" there is no error message and the program does not always work as intended.