re "
allows one to use references as hash keys", I didn't realise this was a problem so to be certain I tried this:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use Data::Dumper;
my $var = "VARVALUE";
my @arr = ( 'ARRVAL1', 'ARRVAL2' );
my %hash = ( hashkey1 => hashval1, hashkey2 => hashval2 );
open my $fh, "| more";
my %HOfR = ( \$var => "valForRefOfVar",
\@arr => "valForRefOfArr",
\%hash => "valForRefOfHash",
\&Sub => "valForRefOfSub",
$fh => "valForRefOfGlob" );
print Dumper( \%HOfR );
sub Sub { };
...it produced the expected kind of results, i.e.:
$VAR1 = {
'ARRAY(0x2ddf0)' => 'valForRefOfArr',
'SCALAR(0x2ddd8)' => 'valForRefOfVar',
'GLOB(0x228b4)' => 'valForRefOfGlob',
'HASH(0x2ddcc)' => 'valForRefOfHash',
'CODE(0x456cc)' => 'valForRefOfSub'
};
which makes me wonder what the original problem actually is.