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> I'm hacking Perl somewhat by guesswork.

Isn't this a redundant statement :-)

Ever used a French keyboard? The numeric/punctuation keys are 
case-reversed from UK/US/JP (and others, I guess, but these are the only 
keyboard flavours I have in regular personal use.)

On a US/UK/JP keyboard you press <shift> to type punctuation on the top 
row of keys, and you release <shift> for 1234567890. On an FR keyboard,
the "native" top-row keys give you things like !@$#%^*$#@$^, whilst you 
need to hold down <shift> to complete the greeting "Happy 2005".

So the French have the unfair advantage that if they pass out at the end 
of a protracted Perl programming binge (can this be avoided?), and their 
heads should crash down forwards onto their desks, then -- given the angle 
of the forehead, the average neck length, and the median typing posture -- 
they tend to produce a chunk of legal Perl code as some kind of 
entropically unbelievable accident.

On second thoughts, that is hardly an advantage, let alone an unfair one.