Benchmark: timing 1000000 iterations of Grep, Max, Ternary...
Grep: 2 wallclock secs ( 2.33 usr + 0.00 sys = 2.33 CPU)
Max: 7 wallclock secs ( 6.27 usr + 0.00 sys = 6.27 CPU)
Ternary: 6 wallclock secs ( 6.20 usr + 0.00 sys = 6.20 CPU)

This was tested on Win2K, dual Celies 366MHz->523MHz, 128MB PC133 SDRAM, while playing some MP3s (if that matters), using Perl 5.005_03.

redmist