You should really be reading p5p. There are some absolute gems there. For a bit, there's been a debate about the behavior of sort in scalar context. Since the behavior is undefined, merlyn wrote: 'The other strawman I use is "sort in a scalar context might just play Nethack". Can you implement that instead?' So Paul Fenwick did.
--- pp_sort.c.orig Thu Jun 24 13:35:06 2004
+++ pp_sort.c Thu Jun 24 13:47:37 2004
@@ -1426,7 +1426,15 @@
I32 is_xsub = 0;
I32 sorting_av = 0;
+ /* If we're called in a void context, then play Nethack.
+ * Suggested by Randal in <86ekonz92m.fsf@blue.stonehenge.com>
+ * p5p, 11th June 2006.
+ *
+ * BUG: This fails if nethack is not in the current path.
+ */
+
if (gimme != G_ARRAY) {
+ system("nethack");
SP = MARK;
RETPUSHUNDEF;
}
What's really fascinating about this patch is that Randal isn't going to make this suggestion for another two years :)