Downsides are that it looks ugly if you don't have an __DIE__ handler

If you overload the stringification operator for your object then you should be able to get the desired behaviour for die.

Another option is that you could overload die and warn e.g

BEGIN {
    *CORE::GLOBAL::die = sub {
      CORE::die("$_[0]->{type}: $_[0]->{msg}\n");
    };
    *CORE::GLOBAL::warn = sub {
      CORE::warn("$_[0]->{type}: $_[0]->{msg}\n");
    };
}

warn { type => "warntest", msg => "missing point" };
die  { type => "dietest",  msg => "and I'm done"  };

__output__

warntest: missing point
dietest: and I'm done
[download]

Extraordinarily hackish, but at least there's an option :)
HTH

_________
broquaint