> you have done something in the sub before that line and hence that line is not "first"

Thank you hippo! That is exactly the case. Why is that not a PBP? I have good reasons for putting code before dealing with parameters in subs, like using IPC::Cmd to check if we can run an executable: 

sub something {
  return 'oops' unless can_run('something');
  my %arg = @_;
  ...
}

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In reply to Re^4: Passing a hash plus some strings to a subroutine by Anonymous Monk
in thread Passing a hash plus some strings to a subroutine by mldvx4

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