There are a gazillion variables "free" to choice from, unless you insist on one-character punctuation variables. Frankly, I don't think you need a one-character punctuation variable for this, and 
   %{^MATCH_OFFSETS}

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will do fine. Personally, I'd like the values being arrays of arrays, the inner arrays 2 elements, the index of the start of the match, and the index just after the end of the match. (that is, similar to @- and @+). The outer array will hold as many captures with that name there are, so if you have: 
    "abc" =~ /(?<l>[a-z])(?<l>[a-z])(?<l>[a-z])/

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the result is: 
    %{^MATCH_OFFSETS} = ('l'  =>  [[0, 1], [1, 2], [2. 3]]);

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I'm also pretty sure that if someone write a patch, it will be added to Perl.

In reply to Re^3: Why are 5.10's named captures read only? by JavaFan
in thread Why are 5.10's named captures read only? by blazar

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