Thank you for this. I hate trying to read Perl so much.
What is the "#/+" for?
What is the "#/+" for?
I am sure this is not necessary for the behavior described. It's just a comment.
BTW: I am working for a company still maintaining a large Perl code base and I think this is rather obscure stuff. You rarely need to run something at compile time, hack the symbol table and you almost never need "sub() {}" to define subroutines with an empty "prototype". If I saw this in a code review I would most definitely had a closer look and would decline a PR if that was unnecessary. Meta programming should not be done lightheartedly and better serves a serious purpose.
Otherwise, "f/1;#/+" is equivalent to something like:
f(/1;#/ +)
Having said that, nothing could touch mod_perl performance under Apache in the late 90s. Massive web apps were built on this including eToys dot com where I worked before it imploded in the dot-com bust.
One of my frist dev jobs was slinging perl script, I loved that attitude and it made for a fantastic learning environment. I really dislike the feeling of having to write code in a straightjacket because tHe TeAm CaN't UnDeRsTaNd iT!!!
We minimized the negatives of TMTOWTDI by incorporating a house style, but it was flexible because we were all smart people whose minds didn't crash because we saw a statement we didn't expect.
Similar situation here. Perl is awsome and I'm still bitter that Python won. I mean significant whitespace - what great madness is this???
Anyway, yes, mod_perl ran the Web for about a decade in the early 2000s and I built and maintained huge websites which were all Perl on the back end.
BTW the book "Perl Best Practices" by Damian Conway [0] is the best general programming book I have ever read. Every software engineer should read it no matter what language they program in. So much good advice which applies to pretty much any significant software project. IMHO right up there with the "Mythical Man Month", though obviously much more low level.
[0] https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/perl-best-practices/059...
I've moved on but still use it for simple scripting tasks despite doing my best to learn Python. I just feel so expressive and unconstrained writing it, for better or worse.