This has turned into a bit of a heated argument. I'm sure it helps us all clarify our views regarding coding preferences..as long as we don't get too personal.
My preference for the most natural coding is without syntatic sugar or other un-natural synthetic additives.
Seriously my advice is that once your data structure starts requiring treatment/code as an object, the reference to the object becomes the natural way to handle it.
the hardest line to type correctly is: stty erase ^H

In reply to Re: when to use lists/hash vs references? by aquarium
in thread when to use lists/hash vs references? by Anonymous Monk

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