in reply to How do you pronounce variable names?

In the Perl course I teach, it is definitely "scalar somescalar", "array odds", "hash table", ... and also "scalar underscore" and "array underscore", which nicely links them together as a "defaulty" type of variables.

Things like $odds[3] and $table{'John'} become "the scalar element with index 3 of the array odds" and "the scalar element with key 'John' of the hash 'table'". I know it is a bit long in the mouth, but it is a course for Perl newbies.

CountZero

A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom