What about it? Now read the rest.

And also missed where the OP agreed that his sample code is wrong...Oh! He hasn't.

First you say the following is wrong:

{ my $c = my @c = split 'xxx', 'fred bill xx joe'; print $c };;
1
{ my $c = my @c = split 'xxx', 'fred bill xxx joe'; print $c };;
2
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Now you're saying the OP's code is right even though it gives the same results for those inputs.

I don't understand. Could you explain a bit more clearly please?