Re: @_ still mystifies me

[cLive ;-)]

Presedence. "@_ is always evaluated to a true" - No, "@lexlist = @_" is.

I think these braces are in the right place:

my @lexlist = @_ or sort keys %lexicon;

# read as
(my @lexlist = @_) or (sort keys %lexicon);

What you want is:

my @lexlist = @_ || sort keys %lexicon;

# read as
my @lexlist = (@_ || sort keys %lexicon);

Or use braces:

my @lexlist = (@_ or sort keys %lexicon);

Hopefully the braces make it a little more readable :) or, and & not have much lower presedence than || && and !

In my experience, to avoid such confusion, I avoid the English versions...

cLive ;-)

Update: see below :) /me eats humble pie and revisits old scripts to see why this has never caused me a problem b4...

[Aristotle]

This won't work because or forces scalar context on its operands.
Update: Thanks, merlyn.
____________
Makeshifts last the longest.

[merlyn]

Only the left operand. Right operand inherits the context of the ... uh ... context. {grin}

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

[Anonymous Monk]

You didn't test your code, and your answer doesn't work.