I'm with you now. When I first looked at your code, I was thinking it was a chunk to be embedded in a subroutine, a la

sub test{
  {
    my $cnt = 1;
    sub get_count {
        return $cnt++;
    }
  }
  print get_count();
}
print "test 4: ".test(4)."\n";
print "test 7: ".test(7)."\n";
[download]

so I was seeing get_count() should be defined repeatedly.

As you point out, since it is named, it is defined only once.

*Your* code shows the much more obvious and clear way of doing it -- define get_count() in a block outside any code.

Your explanations and examples were very helpful. Thanks a bunch!