The error message now hopefully is adequat: > my $x=31; say :8($x) You have confused the number 31 with the textual representation "31"; if you wanted to render the number in the given base, use $number.base($radix) in block <unit> at <unknown file>:1
There is a test for the correct exception type (X::Numeric::Confused) in S02-literals/radix.t