Error in Sect. 7 on using a variable as a variable name

To whom it may concern:

In trying to learn about references, I believe I've found an error in
the Perl FAQ, section 7 ("General Perl Language Issues"), under the
question, "How can I use a variable as a variable name?" The problem
exists in the documentation for Perl 5.6 and Perl 5.8. I tried
emailing this message to "[email protected]" and got
no response. Now that I've got a newer email address, perhaps I can
get a reply.

The FAQ currently reads in part:

   By using symbolic references, you are just using the package's
   symbol-table hash (like %main::) instead of a user-defined hash.
   The solution is to use your own hash or a real reference instead.

       $fred    = 23;
       $varname = "fred";
       $USER_VARS{$varname}++;  # not $$varname++

This solution does not work and does not provide "24" as the FAQ
authors seem to have intended. This can be demonstrated like so:

    #!/usr/bin/perl
    use strict;
    my ($fred, $varname, %USER_VARS);
    $fred    = 23;
    $varname = "fred";
    $USER_VARS{$varname}++;
    print "Value is: $USER_VARS{$varname}\n";

The output is "Value is: 1". So how should this be corrected? Here's
a replacement I suggest for the FAQ. It returns "24", as expected:

    $USER_VARS{fred} = 23;
    $varname         = "fred";
    $USER_VARS{$varname}++;  # not $$varname++

Finally, the FAQ says another solution is to use a real reference
instead. Perhaps you could tell new perl users how this is done:

    $fred       = 23;
    $varname    = \$fred;
    $$varname++; 

Thanks in advance for your time.


-- 
Eric Pement - [email protected]
Education Technical Services, MBI