Re: Why doesn't Perl default (more)

[tobyink]

If push @a; were currently a syntax error, then it would make sense for it to mean push @a, $_; because doing something useful is better than a compilation error. But push @a; isn't a syntax error — it actually does do something — it pushes the empty list onto the array.

Pushing an empty list might seem like a no-op which could never be useful, but if you think that, you're forgetting about tied arrays.