Hmmm... how about using Time::HiRes to increase precision of $^T (in reasonable cases of course)?!

$^T is set before Time::HiRes can be loaded, so it won't make a difference. $^T is not a magic variable that issues time, it is set when the interpreter starts (which can cause a lot of trouble when running under mod_perl, irssi, or any other long term perl embedder).

Don't use $^T for IDing purposes, use time instead. To update existing scripts (but it might break some that depend on $^T to not change), you could use:

package Tie::Time;
use Carp;
use strict;

sub TIESCALAR { bless \my $dummy, shift }
sub STORE { croak 'Cannot set time this way' }
sub FETCH { time }

=head1 NAME

Tie::Time - Have a scalar return the current time()

=head1 SYNOPSIS

    tie my $time, 'Tie::Time'; # New variable
    tie $^T, 'Tie::Time';      # Override existing $^T

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Guess :)

=head1 URL

http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=158912

=cut
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- Yes, I reinvent wheels.
- Spam: Visit eurotraQ.

how about adding require Tie::Scalar, and throwing this in the code catacombs? this is a nice, simple answer to retrieving the current time.

~Particle ;Þ

how about adding require Tie::Scalar

There's not much point in having a base class if you override all methods :) Well, I don't use new() and DESTROY(), but those are rather optional...

and throwing this in the code catacombs? this is a nice, simple answer to retrieving the current time.

It doesn't belong there. This use should not be encouraged, just use time instead. This was a one-minute hack, typed in my browser. If you think it belongs there, go ahead, there is no copyright at all :)

While you're at it, create these as well:

package Tie::Print;
require Tie::Scalar; our @ISA = ('Tie::StdScalar');
sub STORE { print pop }

package Tie::Localtime::Scalar;
require Tie::Scalar; our @ISA = ('Tie::StdScalar');
sub FETCH { return scalar localtime }

etcetera
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Have a look at perlfunc for more ideas. Or just use a one-fits all tie:

package Tie::Scalar::Miscellaneous;
use Carp;
use strict;

sub TIESCALAR {
    my ($class, %functions) = @_;
    $_ ||= q(croak 'Not implemented') for @functions{qw/store fetch/};
    $_ = eval "sub { $_ ( \@_ ) }" for @functions{qw/store fetch/};
    bless \%functions, $class;
}

sub STORE {
    shift->{store}->(pop)
}

sub FETCH {
    shift->{fetch}->();
}
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Which can be used like:

tie my $printer, 'Tie::Scalar::Miscellaneous', store => 'print';
$printer = "Hello, world!\n";
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No, I'm not being serious.

- Yes, I reinvent wheels.
- Spam: Visit eurotraQ.

As i see your answers always get to the point... ;-)
I've never used $^T for this task - always time(). Besides for some time i use unique_id provided with Apache ;-) and from this point have almost nothing to worry about ;-).

Greetz, Tom.