Im a little confused. While I'm well aware of the convention of using the _p -p p suffix for predicate I really dont see how it or a question mark makes the functions following the is_XXXX covention (ie is_female()) more readable.

Its very clear (at least to me) that an is_XXXXX function returns a boolean (well, perls closest equivelent). What benefit do you derive from the extra marker? I can see how a function _not_ named is_XXXXX might need it, but then again we have a convention for that: is_XXXXXX.

(partly serious, partly not)

Yves / DeMerphq
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Writing a good benchmark isnt as easy as it might look.