> A large amount of perl code contains shorcuts - like $^p or %#p (not real perl patterns but I hope you get the point). These patterns are ungooglable and hard

> A large amount of perl code contains shorcuts - like $^p or %#p (not real perl patterns but I hope you get the point). These patterns are ungooglable and hard to remember. Assuming this is a real problem for you, and you aren't just looking for arguments to validate your dislike: `perldoc perlvar` and then search for the variable. When I was doing perl, I used a lot of special variables. I don't see why you shouldn't know what $_, $!, $0, $? do when you are programming perl. I avoided the lesser knowns, but that is how it is in every language - there always are obscure features and it's the programmers responsibility to write reasonable code.