I agree, but for a different reason: the fact that calculations are done from script startup time can lead to unexpected results for long-running scripts, or when running under mod_perl.

That's why I personally prefer to use stat() as well: changing $^T is too much "action at a distance" to me.

On the other hand, being able to recognize 86400 as a synonym for a day, is a typicial sysadmin deformity to me ;-)

Liz