This is basically the same question I had about file test operators earlier (http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl6.language/2007/04/msg27415.htm l). I never got an answer on my syntax question and the discussion went off to talk about file tests instead of pair notation.
>From S02 "The general radix form of a number involves prefixing with the radix in adverbial form". This seems to say that there are non-general radix forms, and that those might involve a different radix form that's not adverbial. Later in the "Literals" section of S02, there's a chart of the corresponding forms for fat arrow, pair, and paren notation. It has a => 'foo' :a<foo> :a(<foo>) That looks like it might mean that these are corresponding forms: 8 => 377 :8<377> :8(377) Now, if I can do that, what happens to the pair form in a hash composer when I want the key of '8' and the value of :10<377>? Also, going a bit further, the table lists a => <foo bar> :a<foo bar> :a(<foo bar>) So can I do things like 255 => <10 1 0 6>; # hey, that looks like an IP address :255<10 1 0 6>; # is that the same as :255[ 10,1,0,6 ] ? And, if that works, what might this do? q:w:255<10 1 0 6>