Reverse does not use $ _ implicitly in the context of the list, is this an error?

Question

@array = reverse; and @array = reverse $_; 

Both are different. @array = reverse does not use $_ implicitly. We must explicitly declare $_ . This is a very strange case when $_ not used by default. This is mistake?

Answer 1

As far as I understand from the reverse documentation , reverse works with arrays, so it should use @_ , not scalar $_ ?

The documentation says: "Used without arguments in a scalar context , reverse() overrides $_ ." [Emphasis added]

 $_ = "dlrow ,olleH"; print reverse; # No output, list context print scalar reverse; # Hello, world 

Answer 2

All that is in the official documentation is the Perl specification. If Perl does what the documents say, it should do it, but that is not an error. This is a decision for language and decision making.