A defense for bracket-less code

[Edward Elliott]

Stelios Xanthakis wrote:
> Also, I think that perl does that because otherwise code like
> 
> if ($x) $y++ if $z; else $z--;
> 
> would be even more confusing :)

With or without braces, that's not legal code.  A one-line if can't be
followed by an else.  The closest you can do is this:

$y++ if $z;
$z-- if !$z;

but that's two statements.  Your example would need braces even if they were
optional.