sub ENABLE_DEBUG () { 0 }
sub debug_inelegant { print $_[0]; }
sub debug_elegant { print $_[0] if ENABLE_DEBUG; }

use Benchmark qw(:all) ;

cmpthese( 30000000, 
    { 
        'inelegant' => "debug_inelegant 'test' if ENABLE_DEBUG;",
        'elegant'   => "debug_elegant 'test';"
    },
);


##</code><code>##

                Rate   elegant inelegant
elegant    3337041/s        --      -95%
inelegant 62500000/s     1773%        --