I find it rather odd to parse random temp. assertion vars. shplep, yaah, zzzz So I started with gv.h With this patch the type of failed variable is obvious without grepping the code. /usr/local/bin/perl5.11.0d-nt.exe -Mblib -MO=-qq,Bytecode,-s,-obytecode11s_5.11.0d-nt.plc bytecode11.pl => assertion "isGV_with_GP(_gvstash)" failed: file "B.c", line 4990 (GvSTASH failed) assertion "isGV_with_GP(_gvgp)" failed: file "B.c", line 4990 (GvGP failed) assertion "isGV_with_GP(_gvflags)" failed: file "B.c", line 5400 (GvFLAGS failed) is more readable than assertion "isGV_with_GP(_gv)" failed: file "B.c", line 4990 assertion "isGV_with_GP(shplep)" failed: file "B.c", line 4961 assertion "isGV_with_GP(yaah)" failed: file "B.c", line 5400 If this is a good idea and leads to no symbol clashes, I'll do the same for the other new assertions in sv.h and friends. SvVALID thwacke SvTAIL _svi SvPAD whap ... -- Reini UrbanThread Next