You make a very good point, and one that I whole-heartedly agree with. As I said, I wouldn't use this sort of thing in real code, but I thought it's worth demonstrating that there are cases where it's quite useful to be able to declare a variable of static lifetime without having to create an enclosing scope. Yes, I see that it can be done with tie, though I usually avoid tied variables after having had a few nasty experiences with their performance. The requisite caller voodoo makes a tied implementation even less appealing.

   MeowChow                                   
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