(Almost?) every non-alpha printable character is used as a global variable for something. In this case, $( is defined in perlvar as $REAL_GROUP_ID (Whatever that is:).
But every global scalar, is just one part of a 'glob', which also has 6 (or 7?) 'slots' (*).
You are familiar with $_ and @_, well there is also a %_ which doesn't see much use outside golf. So it is with all other globals, the are $|, @| & %|, only the first of which has a predefined use, but the others exist and are usable as with any other general purpose global.
(*). I forget exactly what they all are, but broquaint did a very good tutorial on them somewhere. See that for the full SP. Try supersearch for tutorial glob and author broquaint.
Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
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It isn't anything. I suspect that graphic characters (non alphanumeric) get special treatment because of their use as special variables (like %! for example). Try running the code. :)
DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel
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It isn't actually anything, ie it's not used as a Perl special variable. However, all punctuation variables are essentially considered special whether they have meaning or not. This is documented in perlvar where it says...
Perl identifiers that begin with digits, control characters, or punctuation characters are exempt from the effects of the package declaration and are always forced to be in package main ; they are also exempt from strict 'vars' errors.
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Mhm, tricky one. I try to see a reason for this but fail.
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