Benchmark: timing 1000 iterations of dimmesdale PU, dimmesdale loop, perlish...
dimmesdale PU: 36 wallclock secs (34.87 usr +  0.09 sys = 34.96 CPU)
dimmesdale loop: 43 wallclock secs (40.63 usr +  0.13 sys = 40.76 CPU)
   perlish: 35 wallclock secs (33.47 usr +  0.10 sys = 33.57 CPU)

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/perl -w # -*-Perl-*-

use Benchmark;

my @ary;

sub init_val {$_[0]}

sub dimmeloop {
    for($i = 0; $i <= 10_000; $i++) { 
	$ary[$i] = init_val($i);
    }
    1;
}


sub dimmeunroll {
    $idx = 0;
    for($i = 0; $i < 10_000; $i += 10) {
	$ary[$idx++] = init_val($i);
	$ary[$idx++] = init_val($i);
	$ary[$idx++] = init_val($i);
	$ary[$idx++] = init_val($i);
	$ary[$idx++] = init_val($i);
	$ary[$idx++] = init_val($i);
	$ary[$idx++] = init_val($i);
	$ary[$idx++] = init_val($i);
	$ary[$idx++] = init_val($i);
	$ary[$idx++] = init_val($i);
    }
    1;
}

sub tillys {
    @ary = map {init_val $_} (0..10000);
    1;
}

timethese(1000,{
    'dimmesdale loop'=>"dimmeloop",
    'dimmesdale PU'=>"dimmeunroll",
    'perlish'=>"tillys",
});