As pointed out in a followup, Real Perl Programmers prefer things to be visually distinct.

For me, writing is a love-hate relationship.

I was raised a musician and I played classic music, violin, in orchestras and music comedy theaters, I have music running around in my head all the time, and if I hear music that's too interesting, I have to pay attention to it.

Perl is designed to give you several ways to do anything, so consider picking the most readable one.

Perhaps you should compile your Perl with long doubles one of these megaseconds.

Let's say the docs present a simplified view of reality.

The problem with using C++ ... is that there's already a strong tendency in the language to require you to know everything before you can do anything.