Dave Storrs wrote: > The following words could also be overloaded for this purpose: > map, use I think I like use %record{ is a macro that expands to {my \%_ = \%record; even better than the same thing without the key word. Although $_{fieldname} is too long. If only all the punctuation weren't taken already! How about backslash, after the type-qualifier? use %record{ $\interest_earned += $\balance * $\rate_daily; }; Heavy OO could use \ the way C/Java/VB use . and only need one $ prefix.