Used version is strawberry perl 5.20.2.1 (Windows 7; thus I suspected windows memory management); so I'd expect it to have this optimization built in.

Your 2nd argument indeed is very intriguing, as this always happens in the last step of the block, no matter whether it's given once or repeated some times.

In reply to Re^2: "my" slowing down programs? by jf1
in thread "my" slowing down programs? by jf1

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