One thing I'm curious about, Allie, is the number of database lookups (which loading all variables intends to reduce). How does your module handle this? Are all of your lookups done via a centralized function? Or do you sometimes do custom queries on the table itself? Or both? How many queries are the result? I once suggested that the variable table should get a "realm" column and that variable_get should load and static cache all the variables one realm at a time. This was still in the context of "realm" being synonymous with "module". Does your module have a strategy for caching and reducing db queries? Would there be any use in loading all the variables in a realm at once with the thought that the others in the same realm would probably be needed, and the subsequent queries should be avoided? -Robert