By the time the code gets there, $| is 1, $* is 2 and $, is 4, so $=/($*+$,)+$| = 60/(4+2)+1 which in turn equals 11. In your case, the result of that operation is probably returning 27 instead of 11 (if I did my calculations right).

One of those four variables is not getting the proper value it should. Try this: in the code, right before $a="\104\101\124\101", add something like print"<$=|$*|$,|$||$;>\n";, and then we'll be able to see what's wrong :-)

The correct output for that code should be <60|2|4|1|>.