It's not all that bad an idea. Chances are you want this optimization when the values in a hash ARE references. So the source pseudocode would be:

if (SvTYPE(hash_value) == SvREF) return hash_value;
else return new_SV_ref(hash_value);
[download]

I like it. I could try to write it, if you'd like.

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Jeff[japhy]Pinyan: Perl, regex, and perl hacker, who'd like a job (NYC-area)
s++=END;++y(;-P)}y js++=;shajsj<++y(p-q)}?print:??;