Bert Freudenberg wrote:
> Just as a side not on efficiency - globals are much more often read than 
> written. The original goal might even be fulfilled by read-only 
> variables (not sure about that). So optimizing for read is essential, 
> but I have a hunch that writing could be much slower without any 
> noticeable effect on performance.

In general, I agree, but I have my own hunch which is that if writing is 
fast they'll be much more written to than if it's slow ;-) So basically, 
I don't want to have to assume that writing is slow if it can be avoided.

BTW, thanks for all the pointers, ideas, and other comments. I really 
appreciate the discussion and I am still in the midst of thinking about 
a good implementation. I'll share my thoughts later.

Cheers,
   - Andreas