print "\n--- with le/ge\n";
@a=@x;
$start=time();
$a= shift @a;
$b= shift @a;

for my $x (@a) {
    $a = $x  if  $a ge $x;
    $b = $x  if  $b le $x;
}

print $a,"\n",$b,"\n";
print time -$start,"\n";
__END__
--- with le/ge
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0.000100420329498974
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz9.95282924378671e-05
0.773550033569336