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Not sure if you've deliberately put in two bugs there haha

1. shift only shifts off the first element.

2. (if classify this as a bug) using $a and $b are frowned upon because they're the default variables when using sort.

Oh wow I had forgotten about default variables. Such a lovely and inscrutable idea.

Ha, (1.) was deliberate but I'd forgotten (2.)

Yeah, you probably want

  my ($x, $y, $z) = @shift;

:-D

For reference:

Valid is either

   sub () {
     my ($x, $y, $z) = @_;

   sub ($x, $y, $z) {

I should have said

  my ($x, $y, $z) = @$_[0];

but I was making a joke.

If $_[0] is an array reference, @$_[0] becomes a list.

The joke was a reference to most wrong Perl programs being valid for something.

Hence the meme: "93% of Paint Splatters are Valid Perl Programs"

kqr a day ago [ - ]

Why the empty prototype in the first alternative?

yeah, you could leave that out, but then I have to invent a name

kqr a day ago [ - ]

Really? Anonymous subroutines/coderefs are defined with sub {} are they not?