To clarify, when I use dispatch hashes, I almost always store anonymous functions in them. I don't like taking references to named subs for dispatch hashes, it requires me to keep the refs and subnames in sync and offends my sense of Once And Only Once. I should have mentioned that from the get go.. that's the basis for saying the space waste argument is invalid.

Last but not least, the programmer defined hash table has to be maintained manually as new actions are added, old ones deleted or names are changed.

Ah, but that's the problem! I have to take care that other stuff the user should not know about does not become available via symref call as I add it. With the hash, it's obvious: nothing I haven't put in there can be reached. Period.

And once you consider my omitted assumption (mea culpa, it does make a difference to my argument and should have been stated explicitly) that I'm storing anonfuncs in the hash, then there's nothing less automatic about it. Instead of writing sub action_eatfoot {}, I type eatfoot => sub {} and that's it.

Makeshifts last the longest.