Re^2: What the heck does $|++; do?

[PhilHibbs]

Idiomatic? Needlessly obfuscated, I'd say,

I would say both. Part of me dislikes the peculiar ++ behaviour, but in it's defence, it is idiomatic.

Come to think of it, this is another of those cargo cults, isn't it? People doing $|++ without thinking of the consequences, such as non-nestability. If you know that there will not be any nested $| accesses for the same handle, then it's ok.

A minor point, ++ is easier to type than =1 in this case, as you already have your finger on the shift key from the |, so it requires two less actions (release Shift, move finger across keyboard to 1).

[Chady]

...move finger across keyboard to 1

It is already there, you pressed 4 for the $ with your other hand, so your pinky is right above 1 ;-)

[PhilHibbs]

Ah, but you still have to let go of the Shift key, your left hand is still positioned low down on the keyboard from pressing the | key, and pressing two different keys is still slower than pressing the same key twice! Hah! >:->

Of course, on a French keyboard, you don't press shift to get the $ but you have to shift to get the 1, so I'm not sure which would be "most efficient". This requires further dilligent study.