note ikegami <blockquote><p><i>It's not so hard</i></blockquote> <p>Really? I don't see how the code you posted shows that the code I posted suffers from the same problems that strict refs is suppose to fix. Am I missing something? <p>In fact, your code actually reinforces my point. <c>our $x = 123;</c> affects your code but not mine, so hashes are NOT just as bad as symbolic refs. 952446 952698