I think there are two problems. One is the naming convention, the second, the global effects. Why not split them. The names could be improved. And the global nature (of the name) abolished. So $^W becomes $Perl::Warnings and only has a local scope effect? One would use whatever mechanism will be made available to effect (should that be infect) the value in outer scopes. <chaim> >>>>> "MD" == Mark-Jason Dominus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: MD> I don't want to join the discussion in general, and I'm not on the MD> language list. So this is a one-shot manifesto. MD> I agree with the goal of RFC17: MD> Organization and Rationalization of Perl State Variables MD> but I think the implementation ideas are making a terrible mistake. MD> Specifically: >> =head1 IMPLEMENTATION >> =head3 Well-Named Global Hashes And Keys MD> I think if there's one thing we have learned (or should have leanred) MD> from Perl 5, it's that this sort of global state variable is a MD> terrible idea regardless of what its name is. -- Chaim Frenkel Nonlinear Knowledge, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1-718-236-0183