my $x = 0;
my $y = 0;
if ($x > $y) {
    print "x is bigger\n";
}
elsif ($x == $y) { #note the elsif  - like Python's elif
    print "they are equal\n";
}
else { #since x is not greater nor equal
    print "y is bigger\n";
}
        
while ($x++ < 10) {  #note the use of the auto-post-increment
    print "$x "; #remember no line feed, just a space
}
print "\n";  #and now do the line feed
        #we will print 1,2,..10 - even though $x was 0 on the 1st test,
    # that test had the ++ and so by the time we reached the print 
    # it was 1. Similarly, the last time it
        # was 9, but was incremented to 10