The for-loop aliases the variable (here $item) to the list elements. If the list element is a literal, s/// cannot modify it.

On the other hand @list = ("abcdef", "ghijkl", "Dumbo"); puts the elements into an array, and you can always change array elements.

Or phrased differently, it's the same as 

"abcdef" = 3; # doesn't work
$list[0] = 3; # works

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Perl 6 - the future is here, just unevenly distributed

In reply to Re: Still don't undersand "Modification of a read-only value attempted" error by moritz
in thread Still don't undersand "Modification of a read-only value attempted" error by Anonymous Monk

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