Re shift(), why do most people prefer it ? I mean, from a pure readability-based view... Isn't $dict{$_[0]} clearer to understand as "the values stored in %dict with the first argument as the key" than $dict{+shift}

When you read those two statements, doesn't the first one's meaning spring into your head more naturally ?

All in all, Perl's @_ and its $_N elements are burdensome in some cases, and don't look good whatever you do. I guess that Perl 6's argument declarations will solve many of these problems.

Re quotemeta, thanks, I understand it's a good habit. You make as little assumtions as possible about the input, which is nice.