Fair point. The example is not the best I've ever written.

The point is that the empty regex behaviour is useful for allowing you to use m/.../ and then later s//.../ without having to match a second time. Maybe this is better

if ($foo and /bar/) {
   print "Condition suceeds.\n";
   if ($bloop and /bop/) {
      #...
   }
   # do other stuff, maybe even exit...
   s//baz/; # switch bar or bop with baz depending 
            # on a bunch of things that have already happened.
 }
[download]

Hopefully now you see the point? Sure we could probably rework the logic so this isnt needed, but I like the possibilities this opens up. :-)