$[ clarifications.

p4raw-id: //depot/perl@19354

diff --git a/pod/perlvar.pod b/pod/perlvar.pod
index 571953f..3b9ed06 100644 (file)
--- a/pod/perlvar.pod
+++ b/pod/perlvar.pod
@@ -883,8 +883,14 @@ subscripting and when evaluating the index() and substr() functions.
 
 As of release 5 of Perl, assignment to C<$[> is treated as a compiler
 directive, and cannot influence the behavior of any other file.
+(That's why you can only assign compile-time constants to it.)
 Its use is highly discouraged.
 
+Note that, unlike other compile-time directives (such as L<strict>),
+assignment to $[ can be seen from outer lexical scopes in the same file.
+However, you can use local() on it to strictly bound its value to a
+lexical block.
+
 =item $]
 
 The version + patchlevel / 1000 of the Perl interpreter.  This variable