It definitely makes the equation easier to read, but I'm not sure if it makes the code easier to read. You can't easily tell that "." may be doing tons of matrix operations (or who knows what else), not concatenating some strings. It looks like standard Perl, but it's not really Perl, it's mathematics. But on the other hand, people may already have a strong preconception of what "." means with regards to matrix manipulation. And it's easier/faster to type. I can see your point.