Re: <STDIN> not initializing $_

[wade]

Yeah, and since $_ can get silently overwritten (especially as you add code and forget that you were counting on $_) I really hate to use it. Instead, I assign everything to my own variables:

use strict;
use warnings;

while (1) {
    my $foo = <STDIN>;
    $foo =~ m/./ and print "success.\n";
    # ... (more code) ...
}

I'd also tend not to use a while(1) loop but that's a whole other Oprah.

[oko1]

> Yeah, and since $_ can get silently overwritten [...]

Just about as silently as every other variable in Perl. No matter what your own preferences may be, '$_' is an important and integral part of Perl - and there's no reason to give misleading advice to someone who is trying to learn about it.

> [...] I really hate to use it.

Say 'goodbye' to grep and map, then. In fact, bid 'good night' to half the functionality of most Perl functions.

[wade]

I'm just saying that I like to assign values to variables explicitly when possible. I think it's clearer and a little less error-prone but that's just me.