in reply to Re^2: how do $x = \12 differ from $$y = 12 ?
in thread how do $x = \12 differ from $$y = 12 ?

Someone else showed you Devel::Peek code that explains that. $x has a refcount of 2, and $y only has a refcount of 1. It's the same as doing:
$x = \@array; $y = [];
There, $x has a refcount of 2 (from $x and @array), whereas $y has a refcount of only 1.

Jeff japhy Pinyan, P.L., P.M., P.O.D, X.S.: Perl, regex, and perl hacker
How can we ever be the sold short or the cheated, we who for every service have long ago been overpaid? ~~ Meister Eckhart