I tend to find that keeping track of several parallel "simple" data structures is more complex and error-prone than using a single, "complex" one.

I concur. Having parallel data structures is hard to maintain (a maintainer coder wont know everywhere to change) and is confusing usually. So long as there is a consistant and logical structure to the data its complexity is usually not an issue. Although I have to admit that I did write Data::BFDump to dump complex and self-referential data strutures in a more intuitive way as when viewed with Data::Dumper even a fairly simple data structure can end up looking like a plate of spaghetti.

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