If you on the other hand 'use vars', you say that "in this package I want to use variable $foo without having to write out it's fully qualified name ($main::foo). $foo will not be lexically scoped, but will be a global (a package variable).

In perl 5.6 you may also use the keyword 'our' to declare variables as globals, but with a visibility scope equal to a lexical variable. A global with lexical scope ? That did sound strange :) Writing 'our $foo' inside a block or subrutine will make $foo a global - but you may refer to it as $foo _only_ within the lexical scope. You can still refer to $foo outside the scope, but then you will have to fully qualify it as $main::foo (or $my_package::foo)

Autark