The problem here I think is that people are confusing two concepts. The syntax of values separated by commas is called a list. But so is the value in memory consisting of many other scaler values. When I say you cannot have a list in a scalar context, I mean a list value. However, when most people say list and think of the things separated by commas, of course that is also a list to them. However, at no point is that list ever actually a list value. So before you argue this to death, please be clear in your terminology. The representation of the list as values separated by commas could indeed be in a scaler context, but this would never ever be an actual list value at any time during the execution. With that in mind, the answer is that no there never is a list of value in a scalar context: it is an impossibility.