$a = \$a oddity

Message-Id: <200512291802.00742@bloodgate.com>

plus trim some whitespace

p4raw-id: //depot/perl@26528

1 files changed, 13 insertions, 12 deletions

diff --git a/pod/perlreftut.pod b/pod/perlreftut.pod
index e55e4d5308..82ad80e3a6 100644
--- a/pod/perlreftut.pod
+++ b/pod/perlreftut.pod
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ Fortunately, you only need to know 10% of what's in the main page to get
 
 One problem that came up all the time in Perl 4 was how to represent a
 hash whose values were lists.  Perl 4 had hashes, of course, but the
-values had to be scalars; they couldn't be lists.  
+values had to be scalars; they couldn't be lists.
 
 Why would you want a hash of lists?  Let's take a simple example: You
 have a file of city and country names, like this:
@@ -101,6 +101,7 @@ reference to that variable.
 
     $aref = \@array;         # $aref now holds a reference to @array
     $href = \%hash;          # $href now holds a reference to %hash
+    $sref = \$scalar;        # $sref now holds a reference to $scalar
 
 Once the reference is stored in a variable like $aref or $href, you
 can copy it or store it just the same as any other scalar value:
@@ -122,10 +123,10 @@ C<[ ITEMS ]> makes a new, anonymous array, and returns a reference to
 that array.  C<{ ITEMS }> makes a new, anonymous hash, and returns a
 reference to that hash.
 
-    $aref = [ 1, "foo", undef, 13 ];  
+    $aref = [ 1, "foo", undef, 13 ];
     # $aref now holds a reference to an array
 
-    $href = { APR => 4, AUG => 8 };   
+    $href = { APR => 4, AUG => 8 };
     # $href now holds a reference to a hash
 
 
@@ -267,7 +268,7 @@ two-dimensional array; you can write C<< $a[ROW]->[COLUMN] >> to get
 or set the element in any row and any column of the array.
 
 The notation still looks a little cumbersome, so there's one more
-abbreviation:  
+abbreviation:
 
 =head2 Arrow Rule
 
@@ -314,7 +315,7 @@ structure will look like this:
 
 
            %table
-        +-------+---+   
+        +-------+---+
         |       |   |   +-----------+--------+
         |Germany| *---->| Frankfurt | Berlin |
         |       |   |   +-----------+--------+
@@ -381,7 +382,7 @@ C<{$table{$country}}>.  The C<push> adds a city name to the end of the
 referred-to array.
 
 There's one fine point I skipped.  Line 5 is unnecessary, and we can
-get rid of it.  
+get rid of it.
 
     2   while (<>) {
     3    chomp;
@@ -436,11 +437,11 @@ the habit of always including the curly brackets.
 
 This doesn't copy the underlying array:
 
-        $aref2 = $aref1;        
+        $aref2 = $aref1;
 
-You get two references to the same array.  If you modify 
+You get two references to the same array.  If you modify
 C<< $aref1->[23] >> and then look at
-C<< $aref2->[23] >> you'll see the change.   
+C<< $aref2->[23] >> you'll see the change.
 
 To copy the array, use
 
@@ -454,14 +455,14 @@ Similarly, to copy an anonymous hash, you can use
 
         $href2 = {%{$href1}};
 
-=item * 
+=item *
 
 To see if a variable contains a reference, use the C<ref> function.  It
 returns true if its argument is a reference.  Actually it's a little
 better than that: It returns C<HASH> for hash references and C<ARRAY>
 for array references.
 
-=item * 
+=item *
 
 If you try to use a reference like a string, you get strings like
 
@@ -503,7 +504,7 @@ to do with references.
 Author: Mark Jason Dominus, Plover Systems (C<mjd-perl-ref+@plover.com>)
 
 This article originally appeared in I<The Perl Journal>
-( http://www.tpj.com/ ) volume 3, #2.  Reprinted with permission.  
+( http://www.tpj.com/ ) volume 3, #2.  Reprinted with permission.
 
 The original title was I<Understand References Today>.