On Tue, Nov 21, 2006 at 12:36:15AM +1100, Jacinta Richardson wrote: > I suspect he means dor (//): defined or. In 5.10 you'll be able to write: > > $a //= 0; > > which will be the same as writing: > > $a = ( defined $a ? $a : 0); Make that: defined $a ? $a : ($a = 0);