When we heard that Larry didn't acutally want $$foo to infinitely dereference, some of us were overjoyed, and others severely disappointed. Both transparent dereferencing (infinite $$foo) and opaque dereferencing (one-level $$foo) have their uses, but they are definitely distinct. Instead of adding different syntax for each kind, I'll propose something different: two types of references: Opaque and transparent.
Opaque references always need to be explicitly dereferenced (except for binding an array to an array reference, etc.). Transparent references always automatically dereference. The decision of what type of dereferencing will go on is left up to the reference taker. What I can't decide is which one \ will create, and how you will create the other kind. Also, I can't decide how to one-level dereference the transparent references so that you can change them. Luke