I'm sorry if this is a FAQ, but I can't find it. Please consider:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

if (!@ARGV) {showhelp()} 
else { 
  my $single = shift;
  my $remain = join( ' ', @ARGV );
  print "First arg = $single\n";
  print "Remaining = $remain\n";
}  
   
sub showhelp{

print <<"_HELP";

Trying to understand how Perl handles arguments 

Use: $0 First Second Third Fourth ... Nth

Should output:

   First arg = First 
   Remaining = Second Third Fourth ... Nth

The idea is to save the first argument to a scalar and the
remaining ones into a second scalar, with the space (and *only* 
a space) being used as a separator.

_HELP

}
[download]

When run, this works fine for:

%perl arg1.pl fred barney wilma
First arg = fred
Remaining = barney wilma
[download]

It returns the same result when the first argument contains a comma:

%perl arg1.pl fred,barney wilma
First arg = fred
Remaining = barney wilma
[download]

In the second case, I want $single to equal "fred,barney" and $remaining to equal "wilma". Can I do this? How? Why are commas considered separators? Is there a better way to do this? Thanks.