in reply to how do $x = \12 differ from $$y = 12 ?

Here is one difference to think on:
#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; my $x = \12; my $$y = 12; $$y++; $$x++; # <<-line 9 ################# output: Modification of a read-only value attempted at ./tst line 9.
Update: gellyfish already mentioned this, though a demonstration is helpful :-)