"$x=~0" ... ahem ... oh yes :-/

I stumbled on a other rather disturbing problem while checking out my
previous problem:

>> $y=~0
>> p $y 
                      <-- nothing at all!
Ahem... say again?

$ eperl -we '$y=~0; print "$y\n";'
Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at -e line 1.
Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) at -e line 1.

That's rather disturbing for new Perl users.

I definitely don't think that a lone zero should be treated as a pattern,
even if it is behind a '=~'. A '=~ is interpreted as a pattern matching
operator, did you mean " = ~.."?' warning would be in order here, if
possible.

Secondly, "$y\n" isn't a concatenation; it's a string with a variable
inside. I know that internally it's translated to a concatenation, but
the error message either needs to mention both, or the opcodes need to
distinguish the two so that people don't get confused. I'd vote for the
latter solution.

-- 
Matthias Urlichs  |  noris network GmbH   |   smurf@noris.de  |  ICQ: 20193661
The quote was selected randomly. Really.    |      http://www.noris.de/~smurf/
-- 
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.
                                        -- Shakespeare

• "$x=~0" ... ahem ... oh yes :-/ by Unknown Sender
• Re: "$x=~0" ... ahem ... oh yes :-/ by Tom Christiansen
• Re: "$x=~0" ... ahem ... oh yes :-/ by Ilya Zakharevich