in reply to reading from filename '-'

You're getting error because you're trying to open file named '-', not stdin. @ARGV works because <> operator uses two arguments open. Compare these: 

open my $fd, "<", "-"; # will try to open file "-"
open my $fd, "-"; # will open STDIN

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Update: concerning second question, the best practice is to use three arguments form of open, so you solution is ok.

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Re^2: reading from filename '-'
by 7stud (Deacon) on Nov 07, 2009 at 10:40 UTC
    Thanks. The two arg form of open() works great!
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        Thanks. Interesting reading.
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