True, it is derivable from the docs. Having just finished a conversation with a co-worker about another nearly undocumented feature of Perl, I find myself just a bit frustrated with these "derivable" documentation tidbits.

The difference between arrays and lists can be pretty esoteric. In this case, it takes a pre-existing understanding of the list vs. array issue to decode the docs.

As a frequent Perl mentor, I often answer this type of question. Where can I find a good reference that will point out issues like this? Effective Perl Programming is a fantastic "up-and-coming-Perl-coder" book. It doesn't seem to address this lists vs. array issue, however. Are there any other good intermediate-level books which cover this kind of "gotcha?"

Russ
Brainbench 'Most Valuable Professional' for Perl