Re^2: Print not printing

Yes, but the mystery remains: why isn't this syntax invoked in the expression print $a + $b, which should be syntactically equivalent to print $a +$b.

the lowliest monk

Comment on Re^2: Print not printing

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Re^3: Print not printing by rev_1318 (Chaplain) on Jun 24, 2005 at 07:43 UTC
It seems this is one of those rare occasions where white space does matter. The parser has to take a guess at what `+$b` is supposed to be and guesses that a unary + is used. Bug or feature? Depends on how you look at it, I guess :) Paul	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Print not printing by willyyam (Priest) on Jun 24, 2005 at 12:37 UTC
It's a beature! No, a fug!	[reply]
Re^3: Print not printing by CountZero (Bishop) on Jun 24, 2005 at 07:52 UTC
As already said, there is room for ambiguity in this syntax. So although whitespace should not be relevant, it is used to disambiguate things. It really is a Perl DWIM thing. By putting a space before the `+` and not behind it, you seem to hint to Perl that the `+` is now a unary plus and automagically the `$a` now becomes a filehandle. CountZero "If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler." - Conway's Law	[reply] [d/l] [select]