note Limbic~Region [eyepopslikeamosquito], <br /> If I were writing it, it would probably look something like: <CODE> use constant MODE => 2; sub file_mode { my ($file) = @_; return -1 if ! -f $file; return (stat($file))[MODE]; } </CODE> <p> I think perl's shortcuts can get in the way of writing maintainable code sometimes. For instance, [doc://shift] can default to two different variables depending on where in the program it appears. If I were to use [doc://shift], I would be sure to explicitly state which variable it was acting on. By avoiding [doc://shift], adding additional positional variables doesn't require modifying both sides. </p> <p> I know that using _ to avoid another [doc://stat] call is a nice optimization but I would never do it in production code without a comment. I also prefer the use of constants for array indices so that another author can immediately see what is going on. </p> <p> For the record, I am not a developer and do not write production code so take my comments with a boulder of salt. </p> <div class="pmsig"><div class="pmsig-180961"> <p> Cheers - [Limbic~Region|L~R] </p> </div></div> 632152 632152