Ok. I think there is a bug with the current Perl right now:

#!/usr/bin/perl -l

$_ = "japhy";
1 while /(.)/g;
$_ = "upset";
print $1;  # does this print 'y' or 't' for you?
[download]

That code prints "t" for my bleadperl. This means that Perl is not copying the string it matches, but just using a pointer to the string. That explains why this code runs JUST AS FAST as

#!/usr/bin/perl -l

$_ = "japhy";
1 while /./g;
$_ = "upset";
[download]

Now, this makes the test tilly wrote null and void.

_____________________________________________________
Jeff[japhy]Pinyan: Perl, regex, and perl hacker.
s++=END;++y(;-P)}y js++=;shajsj<++y(p-q)}?print:??;