Actually, I like yours best. A few other things that would improve it (for my envisage purposes) are:

  • If it also returned the package name into which the reference was blessed, if it was blessed, in a list context.
  • If it had a deref() function that (optionally?) incremented the ref count.
  • If it provided a safe method of checking the unsmashed reference was still valid.
  • Had a function that would detect and return the type of the unsmashed reference--SCALAR/ARRAY/HASH etc, but also (if it is possible?), the the type of magic to which it is bound. Ie. Classname, or REGEX (I forgot how these get created?) etc.
    Examine what is said, not who speaks.
    Silence betokens consent.
    Love the truth but pardon error.

    In reply to Re^4: Techniques On Saving Memory by BrowserUk
    in thread Techniques On Saving Memory by Limbic~Region

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