The more I look at your first suggestion, the more I like it. I just counted, and there are only 13 locations where I in effect call a code reference. It would certainly be clearer to use the pragma and would act as a kind of documentation as well. As for the 'maker' idea, that isn't actually what I'm using AUTOLOAD for. It only acts as a stand in for code I haven't written yet. It allows me to 'run' without having to worry about the missing parts. The code in question is a compiler and the use of AUTOLOAD will go away in the production version.
--hsm
"Never try to teach a pig to sing...it wastes your time and it annoys the pig."