Re-2: Encoding wonders

[John M. Dlugosz]

I don't understand why it opens itself. Why does opening "a string" append a $ and then treat it as a variable?

[dimmesdale]

From the perlfunc::open section of the site(aslo the perl manpages):

If EXPR is omitted, the scalar variable of the same name as the FILEHANDLE contains the filename.

That means that if an open is called like open 0 then 0 is the filehandle, and the "scalar variable" to open. Take, for instance, this example from perlfunc::open:


$ARTICLE = 100;
    open ARTICLE or die "Can't find article $ARTICLE: $!\n";
    while (<ARTICLE>) {...

If your asking why, as in why is it that way, I'd presume its for brevity and ease, as in:


$LOG = '/path/to/log/file/';
open LOG;

[John M. Dlugosz]

It's probably one of those assume-for-you shortcuts that either didn't take off, nobody remembers anymore, or is from one of the source lanauges.