[Omaha.pm] Proper way to test a variable with strict and -w?

[Jay Hannah]

On Sep 2, 2005, at 11:37 AM, Daniel Linder wrote:
> >Could be- what does “// “ do?
>
>  I believe someone mentioned that it is a "smarter" form of "||" that 
> is due to be included in a future release of Perl.  In this example, 
> if the value to the left of "//" is a value, zero or empty string, 
> then the value the "//" operator returns will be the value/zero/empty 
> string respectively.  If the variable is not defined (or possibly 
> "NaN" or other error values), then it will return the value on the 
> right side of the "//" operator.
>
> I haven't seen a writeup of this new functions planned implementation 
> rules so this might be way off.

http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2004/03/18/synopsis3.html

    "Binary // is just like ||, except that it tests its left side for 
definedness instead of truth. There is a low-precedence form, too: 
err."

j