1 files changed, 16 insertions, 11 deletions

diff --git a/pod/perlre.pod b/pod/perlre.pod
index 2b24379c8b..14892a8846 100644
--- a/pod/perlre.pod
+++ b/pod/perlre.pod
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ also work:
     \L		lowercase till \E (think vi)
     \U		uppercase till \E (think vi)
     \E		end case modification (think vi)
-    \Q		quote regexp metacharacters till \E
+    \Q		quote (disable) regexp metacharacters till \E
 
 If C<use locale> is in effect, the case map used by C<\l>, C<\L>, C<\u>
 and <\U> is taken from the current locale.  See L<perllocale>.
@@ -226,19 +226,20 @@ you've used them once, use them at will, because you've already paid
 the price.
 
 You will note that all backslashed metacharacters in Perl are
-alphanumeric, such as C<\b>, C<\w>, C<\n>.  Unlike some other regular expression
-languages, there are no backslashed symbols that aren't alphanumeric.
-So anything that looks like \\, \(, \), \E<lt>, \E<gt>, \{, or \} is always
-interpreted as a literal character, not a metacharacter.  This makes it
-simple to quote a string that you want to use for a pattern but that
-you are afraid might contain metacharacters.  Quote simply all the
+alphanumeric, such as C<\b>, C<\w>, C<\n>.  Unlike some other regular
+expression languages, there are no backslashed symbols that aren't
+alphanumeric.  So anything that looks like \\, \(, \), \E<lt>, \E<gt>,
+\{, or \} is always interpreted as a literal character, not a
+metacharacter.  This was once used in a common idiom to disable or
+quote the special meanings of regular expression metacharacters in a
+string that you want to use for a pattern. Simply quote all the
 non-alphanumeric characters:
 
     $pattern =~ s/(\W)/\\$1/g;
 
-You can also use the builtin quotemeta() function to do this.
-An even easier way to quote metacharacters right in the match operator
-is to say
+Now it is much more common to see either the quotemeta() function or
+the \Q escape sequence used to disable the metacharacters special
+meanings like this:
 
     /$unquoted\Q$quoted\E$unquoted/
 
@@ -515,7 +516,11 @@ in C<[]>, which will match any one of the characters in the list.  If the
 first character after the "[" is "^", the class matches any character not
 in the list.  Within a list, the "-" character is used to specify a
 range, so that C<a-z> represents all the characters between "a" and "z",
-inclusive.
+inclusive.  If you want "-" itself to be a member of a class, put it
+at the start or end of the list, or escape it with a backslash.  (The
+following all specify the same class of three characters: C<[-az]>,
+C<[az-]>, and C<[a\-z]>.  All are different from C<[a-z]>, which
+specifies a class containing twenty-six characters.)
 
 Characters may be specified using a metacharacter syntax much like that
 used in C: "\n" matches a newline, "\t" a tab, "\r" a carriage return,