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in reply to Re: Pass by ref vs alias : why does scalar size matter?
in thread Pass by ref vs alias : why does scalar size matter?

So, at least judging from the limited set of versions and platforms, things point in the direction of Windows or MSVC to be responsible for the dramatic slowdown although I'm at a loss as to what part might be causing the slowdown.

Not only Windows, because I'm running mine on Linux:

Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 8 subversion 8) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=linux, osvers=2.6.18, archname=x86_64-linux-thread-multi
    uname='linux eisler 2.6.18 #1 smp tue nov 21 12:59:21 utc 2006 x86
+_64 x86_64 x86_64 gnulinux '
    config_args='-ds -e -Dprefix=/usr -Dvendorprefix=/usr -Dinstallusr
+binperl -Dusethreads -Di_db -Di_dbm -Di_ndbm -Di_gdbm -Duseshrplib=tr
+ue -Doptimize=-O2 -fmessage-length=0 -Wall -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -Wa
+ll -pipe'
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    usethreads=define use5005threads=undef useithreads=define usemulti
+plicity=define
    useperlio=define d_sfio=undef uselargefiles=define usesocks=undef
    use64bitint=define use64bitall=define uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cc', ccflags ='-D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -DTHREADS_HAVE_PIDS 
+-DDEBUGGING -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -Wdeclaration-after-statement 
+-D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64',
    optimize='-O2 -fmessage-length=0 -Wall -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -Wal
+l -pipe',
    cppflags='-D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -DTHREADS_HAVE_PIDS -DDEBUGGI
+NG -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -Wdeclaration-after-statement'
    ccversion='', gccversion='4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (SUSE Linux)
+', gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=8, ptrsize=8, doublesize=8, byteorder=12345678
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=1
+6
    ivtype='long', ivsize=8, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t',
+ lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=8, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib64'
    libpth=/lib64 /usr/lib64 /usr/local/lib64
    libs=-lm -ldl -lcrypt -lpthread
    perllibs=-lm -ldl -lcrypt -lpthread
    libc=/lib64/libc-2.5.so, so=so, useshrplib=true, libperl=libperl.s
+o
    gnulibc_version='2.5'
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags='-Wl,-E -
+Wl,-rpath,/usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/x86_64-linux-thread-multi/CORE'
    cccdlflags='-fPIC', lddlflags='-shared -L/usr/local/lib64'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl): 
  Compile-time options: DEBUGGING MULTIPLICITY PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT
                        PERL_MALLOC_WRAP THREADS_HAVE_PIDS USE_64_BIT_
+ALL
                        USE_64_BIT_INT USE_ITHREADS USE_LARGE_FILES
                        USE_PERLIO USE_REENTRANT_API
  Built under linux
  Compiled at Nov 25 2006 11:02:03
  @INC:
    /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/x86_64-linux-thread-multi
    /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/x86_64-linux-thread-multi
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl
    /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/x86_64-linux-thread-multi
    /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8
    /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl
    .

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