Bug or Feature?

[Sec]

While debugging some code, I stumbled upon an interesting tidbit:

$b=chop($a="128");
print $b!= ($a & $b) ?"Just another ":"Perl hacker!\n";
print $b!= ($a & $b) ?"Just another ":"Perl hacker!\n";

I since figured out why it happens. Can you?

[blokhead]

Very interesting, and clever to make a JAPH out of it!
<Reveal this spoiler or all in this thread>

[Aristotle]

A bit of both. This is an interaction between bitwise integer ops vs bitwise string ops and how strings and numbers are autoconverted to each other and how the respective string/integer values are cached separately within a single scalar (cf. Scalar::Util::dualvar).

[sh1tn]

Or maybe just:


print$_=$_&1?"Perl hacker!":"Just another ",$_?"Perl hacker!":"Just an
+other "