Well, if we're going with the sub approach, the eval isn't needed:

use strict;
sub build_lazy {
    my ($name, $callback, @params) = @_;
    
    my $var;
    no strict 'refs';
    *$name = sub {
        $var = $callback->(@params) unless defined $var;
        $var;
    };
}

build_lazy( 'dbh', sub { print @_ }, 'hi');
print dbh(), dbh(); # hi11
[download]

Its not that I don't like this approach (its still a hell of a lot better than what I have now), I just feel that... I don't know, just that its not the be can be done. Then again, I guess I have a weird mental condition where I'm unsatisfied with my code unless it takes on *exactly* the form thats in my mind, and I become uncomfortable when it isn't. I'm kind of weird. Thanks for the idea though.