in reply to Local Copy of a member variable

Try this instead

my $atlas_copy = { %$atlas };
UPDATE: but a deep copy is the better choice here. I was assuming you were dealing with a simple hash structure and i failed to notice that you were copying to hash, not a hash ref. Nothing to see here ... move along. bad jeffa :)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)