[Qcombinator]

I think explains a lot of the polarised reactions people have towards Perl. It's trivial to understand the difference between the scalar var $foo and the array var $foo[0] if someone explains it to you or you read it; but if you're trying to Google-as-you-go, you don't even know what to search for. Those in the former group are more likely to find Perl delightful, while to the latter it's just frustrating.

[dragonwriter]

> It's trivial to understand the difference between the scalar var $foo and the array var $foo[0] if someone explains it to you or you read it;

I don't Perl much, but aren't those both scalars and @foo is an array variable. $foo[0] would be a scalar that is the first element of @foo, right?

[Qcombinator]

Yes, indeed — I should have said "scalar element of the array var..." or something.