Jethro_, he can't store it in the original sock mark because it doesn't exist until the sockread. He then executes the sockmark as a partial command, so I don't know where you expect him to use it again.
On another note, whether "$1." is enabled doesn't change a preference to "$1 $+ ." which is a format more often used by a real programming language without a syntax which must be guessed by the compiler.