May 5, 2026, 4:56 PMThing that just bit me because #Perl is not quite timtoady sometimes:
```
my $foo = pop split(/bla/, $str);
```
(can't pop scalar in modern Perl and this construct puts split into scalar context I guess and that's not fun for pop)
(wanted to avoid the ugly `(...)[-1]` construct)
@phl And `$foo = pop @{split /bla/, $str}` doesn't work either. Hm
May 5, 2026, 5:51 PM@ology I'd expect square brackets to, though, or in postderef form `[...]->@*` but that's also kinda ugly and potentially more work than just grabbing the last item
@phl From an acquaintance: "@{ split ... } evaluates split in scalar context, then dereferences the result ... unfortunately split returns a count in scalar context, not an arrayref"
May 5, 2026, 6:17 PM@ology That's exactly why I said square brackets :) Makes an anon arrayref and then derefs it
@phl I wonder if that error message is an issue. I wouldn't expect it to work anyway, because pop really expects an array, as it has to modify it. I don't think it can do that with the list split generates.
That is, it seems more in the category of "Can't modify constant item" than "Experimental pop on scalar" ... and I don't think it's the context.
1> pop split /bla/, $str
Experimental pop on scalar is now forbidden
May 6, 2026, 10:49 AM@fuzzix Good point. I guess the can't modify constant item one would be more appropriate (although also somewhat confusing :D)
And yeah, here's me confusing lists with arrays 25+ years into the Perl world still :D It's I guess a bit of a footgun.
@phl Just tried out perl 5.12 (the version before experimental "Array and hash container functions accept references") and got a much more helpful message:
$ perl -E 'my $str="fooblabar"; pop split(/bla/, $str);'
Type of arg 1 to pop must be array (not split) ...
May 6, 2026, 11:53 AM@fuzzix Oh yes, that really is much better.
@phl yep, popping a scalar was found to be too dwimmy. in which case one might expect pop to provide a list context but it's not _that_ special, alas.
May 7, 2026, 9:05 PM@BRicker fuzzix's digging for a Perl from before the ill-fated autounwrapping of references was introduced shows that the error message used to be slightly more reasonable back in the day. (https://mastodon.ie/@fuzzix/116527414827162458)