On avoiding the intended (but unwanted) effect of \outer

[Taylor, P]

David Carlisle wrote:
> You could save yourself some bytes, and some expansion steps.
>
> \edef \imagebox #1{\expandafter\noexpand\csname newbox\endcsname #1\setbox #1}
>
> David

Confused (as always), David.  Your definition is 77 characters, mine is 
56.   I assume that the "bytes saved" must therefore be in TeX's 
internal memory, but we have for quite some time not been restricted to 
640kB, so are there any real-world situations in which saving those few 
bytes (and some expansion steps) is more important that writing clear, 
simple, didactic code ?

** Phil.