So, at least judging from the limited set of versions and platforms, things point in the direction of Windows or MSVC to be responsible for the dramatic slowdown although I'm at a loss as to what part might be causing the slowdown.

Not only Windows, because I'm running mine on Linux:

Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 8 subversion 8) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=linux, osvers=2.6.18, archname=x86_64-linux-thread-multi
    uname='linux eisler 2.6.18 #1 smp tue nov 21 12:59:21 utc 2006 x86
+_64 x86_64 x86_64 gnulinux '
    config_args='-ds -e -Dprefix=/usr -Dvendorprefix=/usr -Dinstallusr
+binperl -Dusethreads -Di_db -Di_dbm -Di_ndbm -Di_gdbm -Duseshrplib=tr
+ue -Doptimize=-O2 -fmessage-length=0 -Wall -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -Wa
+ll -pipe'
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    usethreads=define use5005threads=undef useithreads=define usemulti
+plicity=define
    useperlio=define d_sfio=undef uselargefiles=define usesocks=undef
    use64bitint=define use64bitall=define uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cc', ccflags ='-D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -DTHREADS_HAVE_PIDS 
+-DDEBUGGING -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -Wdeclaration-after-statement 
+-D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64',
    optimize='-O2 -fmessage-length=0 -Wall -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -Wal
+l -pipe',
    cppflags='-D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -DTHREADS_HAVE_PIDS -DDEBUGGI
+NG -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -Wdeclaration-after-statement'
    ccversion='', gccversion='4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (SUSE Linux)
+', gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=8, ptrsize=8, doublesize=8, byteorder=12345678
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=1
+6
    ivtype='long', ivsize=8, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t',
+ lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=8, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib64'
    libpth=/lib64 /usr/lib64 /usr/local/lib64
    libs=-lm -ldl -lcrypt -lpthread
    perllibs=-lm -ldl -lcrypt -lpthread
    libc=/lib64/libc-2.5.so, so=so, useshrplib=true, libperl=libperl.s
+o
    gnulibc_version='2.5'
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags='-Wl,-E -
+Wl,-rpath,/usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/x86_64-linux-thread-multi/CORE'
    cccdlflags='-fPIC', lddlflags='-shared -L/usr/local/lib64'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl): 
  Compile-time options: DEBUGGING MULTIPLICITY PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT
                        PERL_MALLOC_WRAP THREADS_HAVE_PIDS USE_64_BIT_
+ALL
                        USE_64_BIT_INT USE_ITHREADS USE_LARGE_FILES
                        USE_PERLIO USE_REENTRANT_API
  Built under linux
  Compiled at Nov 25 2006 11:02:03
  @INC:
    /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/x86_64-linux-thread-multi
    /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/x86_64-linux-thread-multi
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl
    /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/x86_64-linux-thread-multi
    /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8
    /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl
    .

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In reply to Re^2: Pass by ref vs alias : why does scalar size matter? by clinton
in thread Pass by ref vs alias : why does scalar size matter? by clinton

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