I'm pretty sure that works the same way

my $i = 13 if $expr;
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does, and is not to be trusted to continue to do what you mean.

No, maybe I'm wrong. Hmm.

Update: as long as you don't modify $start or $end except in cases where they were already set, I think you can count on this continuing to work, even if the my $foo if bar thing is "fixed". But I'd expect that if a warning is added for the my $foo if bar thing, that you'd get the warning with your code also.