sub implicit
{ my @array = sort   gs::long_strings_first                   @data; }
sub explicit
{ my @array = sort { gs::long_strings_first($a,$b)          } @data; }
sub explicit_np
{ my @array = sort { gs::long_strings_first_no_proto($a,$b) } @data; }

__END__

              Rate explicit_np    explicit    implicit
explicit_np  606/s          --         -1%        -49%
explicit     610/s          1%          --        -49%
implicit    1187/s         96%         95%          --