Punctuation in the index is sorted in the alphabetical order of
each symbol's English equivalent: ampersand,
asterisk, at sign, backslash, etc.
Entries
that consist only of punctuation are listed at the front of the index.
Variable names beginning with $ and consisting only of
punctuation, such as $_ and $^,
are combined under the heading $ variables, starting on the
Symbols page of the index.
Terms with initial punctuation
followed by alphanumeric characters, such as %INC hash, are
sorted by their alphanumeric characters (e.g., INChash).