Here's my, possibly skewed, reasoning as to how it should work, at least in one sense: 
$_ = '\\something';      # \\something
$_ = 'It\'s a tragedy';  # It's a tragedy
$_ = '\\'';              # \'

[download]
Of course, the last example would probably strike many a C programmer as being far too bizarre to comprehend.

This is why I expected the q() operator to behave differently. As it was pointed out, the only reason for \\ is because of the requirement for \', which would imply that if \' were no longer an issue, \\ would cease to be relevant as well.

Here's what I would expect, and yet this is not the case: 
$_ = q[\\something];     # \\something
$_ = q[It's a tragedy];  # It's a tragedy
$_ = q[\'];              # \'

[download]
Update:
The last "should" example is parsed as such:
',\,\','
That is to say, that this is really a single quote, followed by a single backslash, followed by the token \', followed by a single quote.

In reply to Re^4: If I Want Backslashes, I'll Ask For Backslashes by tadman
in thread If I Want Backslashes, I'll Ask For Backslashes by tadman

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.