[Linux-disciples] perl question: why do modules return a reference to a hash and not a hash?

[Adam Rosi-Kessel]

Stephen R Laniel wrote:
> Again, the syntax for initializing hashes is the same as
> that for initializing lists. I'm pretty sure that if you
> rerun your function-that-calls-other-functions with a hash
> as an argument, you'll get the output you expect.

Oops. Yeah. You got me.

So initializing the hash correctly, when values are returned I get:

Parameter 1 = a
Parameter 2 = 1
Parameter 3 = b
Parameter 4 = 2
Parameter 5 = bob

When references are returned I get:

Parameter 1 = HASH(0x8160654)
Parameter 2 = SCALAR(0x8163cd8)

So that is, indeed, at least one good reason to return references.

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