Thanks - that's great! I think perhaps code is easier to make into "shapes" than data... there's more scope for "tricks" like comments and such like. Maybe that's where I was going wrong...

As a side note, I think you've made an outstanding improvement from your last entry

Cheers. I've only just started looking at all the many ways of obfuscating - it's a totally different way of thinking, isn't it?

I especially like your use of the semicolon as your regex separator

Yeah, I wanted to use $; instead of $= as well - but I just couldn't make it work in the regexp!

and your cryptic use of the $@ variable

I saw that idea somewhere else, ages ago - can't remember who or where. To be honest I only tested this in v5.8.0 - no idea if it still works in other versions!

Have a good (long, if in the UK) weekend, everyone!